Home and Family

Home , As the Lights Go Down, Da (play), Proof (play), Right by You, Ruined (play), Something to Tell You

5 Home and Family

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 148 18/08/16 12:26 PM hat makes a house a W home? “Home” suggests sanctuary, loved ones, nourishment — a place where everybody knows your name. The term is woven deep into our language as well as our consciousness. Consider the connotations of homemade and homespun. Home can offer refuge from the hostile world, or it can be a prison. People living together inevitably — sometimes intentionally — rub one another the wrong way. This chafing provides writers with rich material for art. (Remember, without conflict there is no story.) Are these writers working through their own failed relationships with mothers, fathers, and siblings? Sometimes. Are they exploring their conflicted feelings toward a home they left behind? Maybe. Are they holding up a mirror that allows us to see our own homes and families in a new light? Most certainly. Though the trappings of Happy families are all alike; home and family differ across every unhappy family is unhappy cultures, human families have in its own way. much in common. Legend has it that a man from Czechoslovakia, — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina after watching a production of August Wilson’s Fences (set in Pittsburgh in the 1950s), approached the playwright and asked him, “How did you know about my family?” Wilson may not have known that particular man’s family, but he knew about families and how the sins of the Getty Images

/ father play out in the lives of sons.

149 Artur Debat

The readings in this chapter explore the theme of home and family within Home and Family a broad range of contexts. Franz Kafka’s modernist masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, is told from the point of view of a son whose transformation into a large bug renders him unable to support his middle- class family in the rapidly changing cityscape they call home. You’ll also find several selections of modernist fiction, poetry, and art that reflect early twentieth–century perceptions of human experience, particularly in urban centers — these works will help you explore the place The Metamorphosis occupies within modernist tradition. In Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son,” the speaker uses her own suffering as an example to chide her son, “So boy, don’t you turn back. / Don’t you set down on the steps / ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.” Alice Munro’s “The Progress of Love” looks at family through the stories characters tell, retell, and revise about their shared memories. Let the literature on the following pages take you into other homes and families so that you can return to your own with new eyes.

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Fences

AUGUST WILSON August Wilson (1945–2005) was born in Pittsburgh to a white father and an African American mother. When his father died in 1965, he changed his legal name (Frederick August Kittel) to August Wilson, assuming his mother’s maiden name. Brought up by his mother, he spent his early years in the Hill — a poor, multiracial district of Pittsburgh, the setting for his later work. His formal education ended when he dropped out of high school at the age of fifteen. He was largely self-educated, becoming acquainted with the works of leading AP Photo / Ted S. Warren African American writers through the Carnegie Library. He cofounded the Black Horizon Theater in the Hill District in 1968, and vowed to become a writer. This ambition was realized during the 1980s, when Wilson began writing The Pittsburgh Cycle — a remarkable collection of partially interconnected plays. Collectively, the plays portray the twentieth century from an African American perspective. The cycle garnered many awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes (for Fences in 1985 and The Piano Lesson in 1989); the tenth and final play, Radio Golf, was performed a few months before his death. Wilson’s influence lies in his ability, through larger-than-life characters and intense, perceptive characterization, to create a universal dimension in which issues of race and family in America are examined. In Fences, Troy Maxson embodies one of those larger-than-life characters.

For Lloyd Richards, who adds to whatever setting The setting is the yard which fronts the he touches only entrance to the Maxson household, an ancient two-story brick house set back off a small When the sins of our fathers visit us alley in a big-city neighborhood. The entrance to We do not have to play host. the house is gained by two or three steps leading We can banish them with forgiveness to a wooden porch badly in need of paint. As God, in His Largeness and Laws. A relatively recent addition to the house and — August Wilson running its full width, the porch lacks congruence. It is a sturdy porch with a flat roof. One or Characters two chairs of dubious value sit at one end where troy maxson gabriel, Troy’s brother the kitchen window opens onto the porch. An jim bono, Troy’s friend cory, Troy and Rose’s son old-fashioned icebox stands silent guard at the rose, Troy’s wife raynell, Troy’s daughter opposite end. lyons, Troy’s oldest son by previous marriage The yard is a small dirt yard, partially fenced, except for the last scene, with a wooden sawhorse, a pile of lumber, and other

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fence-building equipment set off to the side. ACT I Home and Family Opposite is a tree from which hangs a ball made Scene 1 of rags. A baseball bat leans against the tree. Two It is 1957. troy and bono enter the yard, oil drums serve as garbage receptacles and sit engaged in conversation. troy is fifty-three years near the house at right to complete the setting. old, a large man with thick, heavy hands; it is this the play Near the turn of the century, the largeness that he strives to fill out and make an destitute of Europe sprang on the city with accommodation with. Together with his tenacious claws and an honest and solid dream. blackness, his largeness informs his sensibilities The city devoured them. They swelled its belly and the choices he has made in his life. until it burst into a thousand furnaces and Of the two men, bono is obviously the sewing machines, a thousand butcher shops and follower. His commitment to their friendship of bakers’ ovens, a thousand churches and thirty-odd years is rooted in his admiration of hospitals and funeral parlors and money- troy’s honesty, capacity for hard work, and his lenders . The city grew. It nourished itself and strength, which bono seeks to emulate. offered each man a partnership limited only by It is Friday night, payday, and the one night of his talent, his guile, and his willingness and the week the two men engage in a ritual of talk and capacity for hard work. For the immigrants of drink. troy is usually the most talkative and at Europe, a dream dared and won true. times he can be crude and almost vulgar, though he The descendants of African slaves were is capable of rising to profound heights of expression. offered no such welcome or participation. They The men carry lunch buckets and wear or carry came from places called the Carolinas and the burlap aprons and are dressed in clothes suitable to Virginias, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and their jobs as garbage collectors. Tennessee. They came strong, eager, searching. The city rejected them and they fled and settled bono Troy, you ought to stop that lying! along the riverbanks and under bridges in troy I ain’t lying! The nigger had a watermelon shallow, ramshackle houses made of sticks and this big. (He indicates with his hands.) Talking tarpaper. They collected rags and wood. They sold about . . . “What watermelon, Mr. Rand?” the use of their muscles and their bodies. They I liked to fell out! “What watermelon, 5 cleaned houses and washed clothes, they shined Mr. Rand?” . . . And it sitting there big as life. shoes, and in quiet desperation and vengeful bono What did Mr. Rand say? pride, they stole, and lived in pursuit of their own troy Ain’t said nothing. Figure if the nigger too dream. That they could breathe free, finally, and dumb to know he carrying a watermelon, he stand to meet life with the force of dignity and wasn’t gonna get much sense out of him. 10 whatever eloquence the heart could call upon. Trying to hide that great big old watermelon By 1957, the hard-won victories of the under his coat. Afraid to let the white man European immigrants had solidified the industrial see him carry it home. might of America. War had been confronted and bono I’m like you . . . I ain’t got no time for won with new energies that used loyalty and them kind of people. 15 patriotism as its fuel. Life was rich, full, and troy Now what he look like getting mad cause flourishing. The Milwaukee Braves won the World he see the man from the union talking to Series, and the hot winds of change that would Mr. Rand? make the sixties a turbulent, racing, dangerous, and bono He come to me talking about . . . provocative decade had not yet begun to blow full. “Maxson gonna get us fired.” I told him to get 20

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 152 18/08/16 12:26 PM away from me with that. He walked away And the first one you gonna tell . . . that you Wilson from me calling you a troublemaker. What gonna want to brag to . . . is me. 65

Mr. Rand say? bono I ain’t saying that. I see where you be troy Ain’t said nothing. He told me to go down eyeing her. Fences the Commissioner’s office next Friday. They 25 troy I eye all the women. I don’t miss nothing. called me down there to see them. Don’t never let nobody tell you Troy Maxson bono Well, as long as you got your complaint don’t eye the women. 70 filed, they can’t fire you. That’s what one of bono You been doing more than eyeing her. them white fellows tell me. You done bought her a drink or two. troy I ain’t worried about them firing me. 30 troy Hell yeah, I bought her a drink! What that They gonna fire me cause I asked a question? mean? I bought you one, too. What that mean That’s all I did. I went to Mr. Rand and asked cause I buy her a drink? I’m just being polite. 75 him, “Why? Why you got the white mens bono It’s all right to buy her one drink. That’s driving and the colored lifting?” Told him, what you call being polite. But when you “What’s the matter, don’t I count? You think 35 wanna be buying two or three . . . tha t’s what only white fellows got sense enough to drive you call eyeing her. a truck. That ain’t no paper job! Hell, troy Look here, as long as you known me . . . 80 anybody can drive a truck. How come you got you ever known me to chase after women? all whites driving and the colored lifting?” He bono Hell yeah! Long as I done known you. told me “take it to the union.” Well, hell, that’s 40 You forgetting I knew you when. what I done! Now they wanna come up with troy Naw, I’m talking about since I been this pack of lies. married to Rose? 85 bono I told Brownie if the man come and ask bono Oh, not since you been married to Rose. him any questions . . . just tell the truth! It Now, that’s the truth, there. I can say that. ain’t nothing but something they done 45 troy All right then! Case closed. trumped up on you cause you filed a bono I see you be walking up around Alberta’s complaint on them. house. You supposed to be at Taylors’ and 90 troy Brownie don’t understand nothing. you be walking up around there. All I want them to do is change the job troy What you watching where I’m walking description. Give everybody a chance to drive 50 for? I ain’t watching after you. the truck. Brownie can’t see that. He ain’t got bono I seen you walking around there more that much sense. than once. 95 bono How you figure he be making out with troy Hell, you liable to see me walking that gal be up at Taylors’ all the time . . . tha t anywhere! That don’t mean nothing cause Alberta gal? 55 you see me walking around there. troy Same as you and me. Getting just as bono Where she come from anyway? She just much as we is. Which is to say nothing. kinda showed up one day. 100 bono It is, huh? I figure you doing a little better troy Tallahassee. You can look at her and tell than me . . . and I ain’t saying what I’m she one of them Florida gals. They got some doing. 60 big healthy women down there. Grow them troy Aw, nigger, look here . . . I know you. If right up out the ground. Got a little bit of you had got anywhere near that gal, twenty Indian in her. Most of them niggers down in 105 minutes later you be looking to tell somebody. Florida got some Indian in them.

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bono I don’t know about that Indian part. But rose Troy Maxson, don’t you start that now! 135 Home and Family she damn sure big and healthy. Woman wear troy (puts his arm around her): Aw, woman . . . some big stockings. Got them great big old come here. Look here, Bono . . . when I met legs and hips as wide as the Mississippi River. 110 this woman . . . I got out that place, say, troy Legs don’t mean nothing. You don’t do “Hitch up my pony, saddle up my mare . . . nothing but push them out of the way. But there’s a woman out there for me somewhere. 140 them hips cushion the ride! I looked here. Looked there. Saw Rose and bono Troy, you ain’t got no sense. latched on to her.” I latched on to her and told troy It’s the truth! Like you riding on 115 her — I’m gonna tell you the truth — I told Goodyears! her, “Baby, I don’t wanna marry, I just wanna be your man.” Rose told me . . . tell him what 145 rose enters from the house. She is ten years you told me, Rose. younger than troy, her devotion to him stems rose I told him if he wasn’t the marrying kind, from her recognition of the possibilities of her life then move out the way so the marrying kind without him: a succession of abusive men and could find me. their babies, a life of partying and running the troy That’s what she told me. “Nigger, you in 150 streets, the Church, or aloneness with its atten- my way. You blocking the view! Move out the dant pain and frustration. She recognizes troy’s way so I can find me a husband.” I thought it spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she over two or three days. Come bac k — either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of rose Ain’t no two or three days nothing. You which she recognizes. Though she doesn’t drink, was back the same night. 155 her presence is an integral part of the Friday troy Come back, told her . . . “Okay, baby . . . night rituals. She alternates between the porch but I’m gonna buy me a banty rooster and and the kitchen, where supper preparations are put him out there in the backyard . . . and under way. when he see a stranger come, he’ll flap his wings and crow . . .” Look here, Bono, I could 160 rose What you all out here getting into? watch the front door by myself . . . it was that troy What you worried about what we getting back door I was worried about. into for? This is men talk, woman. rose Troy, you ought not talk like that. Troy rose What I care what you all talking about? 120 ain’t doing nothing but telling a lie. Bono, you gonna stay for supper? troy Only thing is . . . when we first got 165 bono No, I thank you, Rose. But Lucille say she married . . . forget the rooster . . . we ain’t cooking up a pot of pigfeet. had no yard! troy Pigfeet! Hell, I’m going home with you! bono I hear you tell it. Me and Lucille Might even stay the night if you got some 125 was staying down there on Logan Street. pigfeet. You got something in there to top Had two rooms with the outhouse in the 170 them pigfeet, Rose? back. I ain’t mind the outhouse none. But rose I’m cooking up some chicken. I got some when that goddamn wind blow through there chicken and collard greens. in the winter . . . tha t’s what I’m talking troy Well, go on back in the house and let me 130 about! To this day I wonder why in the hell I and Bono finish what we was talking about. ever stayed down there for six long years. But 175 This is men talk. I got some talk for you later. see, I didn’t know I could do no better. I You know what kind of talk I mean. You go on thought only white folks had inside toilets and powder it up. and things. 154

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 154 18/08/16 12:26 PM rose There’s a lot of people don’t know they ought to go and get recruited in how to fix cars Wilson can do no better than they doing now. That’s 180 or something where he can make a living.

just something you got to learn. A lot of folks rose He ain’t talking about making no living 225 still shop at Bella’s. playing football. It’s just something the boys Fences troy Ain’t nothing wrong with shopping at in school do. They gonna send a recruiter by Bella’s. She got fresh food. to talk to you. He’ll tell you he ain’t talking rose I ain’t said nothing about if she got fresh 185 about making no living playing football. It’s a food. I’m talking about what she charge. She honor to be recruited. 230 charge ten cents more than the A&P. troy It ain’t gonna get him nowhere. Bono’ll troy The A&P ain’t never done nothing for me. tell you that. I spends my money where I’m treated right. bono If he be like you in the sports . . . he’ s I go down to Bella, say, “I need a loaf of 190 gonna be all right. Ain’t but two men ever bread, I’ll pay you Friday.” She give it to me. played baseball as good as you. That’s Babe 235 What sense that make when I got money to Ruth and Josh Gibson.1 Them’s the only two go and spend it somewhere else and ignore men ever hit more home runs than you. the person who done right by me? That ain’t troy What it ever get me? Ain’t got a pot to piss in the Bible. 195 in or a window to throw it out of. rose We ain’t talking about what’s in the Bible. rose Times have changed since you was 240 What sense it make to shop there when she playing baseball, Troy. That was before the overcharge? war. Times have changed a lot since then. troy You shop where you want to. I’ll do my troy How in hell they done changed? shopping where the people been good to me. 200 rose They got lots of colored boys playing ball rose Well, I don’t think it’s right for her to now. Baseball and football. 245 overcharge. That’s all I was saying. bono You right about that, Rose. Times have bono Look here . . . I got to get on. Lucille changed, Troy. You just come along too early. going be raising all kind of hell. troy There ought not never have been no time troy Where you going, nigger? We ain’t 205 called too early! Now you take that fellow . . . finished this pint. Come here, finish this pint. what’s that fellow they had playing right field 250 bono Well, hell, I am . . . if you ever turn the for the Yankees back then? You know who I’m bottle loose. talking about, Bono. Used to play right field troy (hands him the bottle): The only thing I for the Yankees. say about the A&P is I’m glad Cory got that 210 rose Selkirk? job down there. Help him take care of his troy Selkirk! That’s it! Man batting .269, 255 school clothes and things. Gabe done moved understand? .269. What kind of sense that out and things getting tight around here. He make? I was hitting .432 with thirty-seven got that job. . . . He can start to look out for home runs! Man batting .269 and playing himself. 215 right field for the Yankees! I saw Josh Gibson’s rose Cory done went and got recruited by a daughter yesterday. She walking around with 260 college football team. raggedy shoes on her feet. Now I bet you troy I told that boy about that football stuff. The Selkirk’s daughter ain’t walking around with white man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere raggedy shoes on her feet! I bet you that! with that football. I told him when he first 220 come to me with it. Now you come telling me 1 Josh Gibson (1911–1947) was a baseball player in the Negro he done went and got more tied up in it. He leagues. — EDS.

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rose They got a lot of colored baseball players night out of the week. That’s Friday night. Home and Family now. Jackie Robinson was the first. Folks had 265 I’m gonna drink just enough to where I can to wait for Jackie Robinson. handle it. Then I cuts it loose. I leave it alone. troy I done seen a hundred niggers play So don’t you worry about me drinking myself baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I to death. ’Cause I ain’t worried about Death. 310 know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn’t I done seen him. I done wrestled with him. even make! What you talking about Jackie 270 Look here, Bono . . . I looked up one day Robinson. Jackie Robinson wasn’t nobody. and Death was marching straight at me. Like I’m talking about if you could play ball then Soldiers on Parade! The Army of Death was they ought to have let you play. Don’t care marching straight at me. The middle of July, 315 what color you were. Come telling me I come 1941. It got real cold just like it be winter. It along too early. If you could play . . . then 275 seem like Death himself reached out and they ought to have let you play. touched me on the shoulder. He touch me just like I touch you. I got cold as ice and troy takes a long drink from the bottle. Death standing there grinning at me. 320 rose You gonna drink yourself to death. You rose Troy, why don’t you hush that talk. don’t need to be drinking like that. troy I say . . . what you want, Mr. Death? You troy Death ain’t nothing. I done seen him. be wanting me? You done brought your army Done wrassled with him. You can’t tell me 280 to be getting me? I looked him dead in the nothing about death. Death ain’t nothing but eye. I wasn’t fearing nothing. I was ready to 325 a fastball on the outside corner. And you tangle. Just like I’m ready to tangle now. The know what I’ll do to that! Lookee here, Bible say be ever vigilant. That’s why I don’t Bono . . . am I lying? You get one of them get but so drunk. I got to keep watch. fastballs, about waist high, over the outside 285 rose Troy was right down there in Mercy corner of the plate where you can get the Hospital. You remember he had pneumonia? 330 meat of the bat on it . . . and good god! You Laying there with a fever talking plumb out of can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying? his head. bono Naw, you telling the truth there. I seen troy Death standing there staring at me . . . you do it. 290 carrying that sickle in his hand. Finally he troy If I’m lying . . . tha t 450 feet worth of say, “You want bound over for another year?” 335 lying! (Pause.) That’s all death is to me. See, just like that . . . “You want bound over A fastball on the outside corner. for another year?” I told him, “Bound over rose I don’t know why you want to get on hell! Let’s settle this now!” talking about death. 295 It seem like he kinda fell back when I said troy Ain’t nothing wrong with talking about that, and all the cold went out of me. I 340 death. That’s part of life. Everybody gonna reached down and grabbed that sickle and die. You gonna die, I’m gonna die. Bono’s threw it just as far as I could throw it . . . and gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die. me and him commenced to wrestling. rose But you ain’t got to talk about it. I don’t 300 We wrestled for three days and three like to talk about it. nights. I can’t say where I found the strength 345 troy You the one brought it up. Me and Bono from. Every time it seemed like he was gonna was talking about baseball . . . you tell me I’m get the best of me, I’d reach way down deep gonna drink myself to death. Ain’t that right, inside myself and find the strength to do him Bono? You know I don’t drink this but one 305 one better. 156

In this painting entitled Amerika (Baseball), how does artist R. B. Kitaj introduce Fences elements of threat and menace? How does his depiction of baseball reflect or challenge Troy Maxson’s relationship with the sport? R. B. Kitaj, Amerika (Baseball), 1983-1984. Oil on canvas. 58 × 58 inches. Collection Yale University Art Gallery. © the Estate of R. B. Kitaj, Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York.

rose Every time Troy tell that story he find 350 bono Well, look here, since you got different ways to tell it. Different things to to keep up your vigilance . . . let make up about it. me have the bottle. troy I ain’t making up nothing. I’m telling you troy Aw hell, I shouldn’t have told 375 the facts of what happened. I wrestled with you that part. I should have left out Death for three days and three nights and I’m 355 that part. standing here to tell you about it. (Pause.) All rose Troy be talking that stuff and right. At the end of the third night we done half the time don’t even know what weakened each other to where we can’t he be talking about. 380 hardly move. Death stood up, throwed on his troy Bono know me better than that. robe . . . had him a white robe with a hood on 360 bono That’s right. I know you. I it. He throwed on that robe and went off to know you got some Uncle Remus2 look for his sickle. Say, “I’ll be back.” Just like in your blood. You got more stories that. “I’ll be back.” I told him, say, “Yeah, than the devil got sinners. 385 but . . . yo u gonna have to find me!” I wasn’t troy Aw hell, I done seen him too! no fool. I wan’t going looking for him. Death 365 Done talked with the devil. ain’t nothing to play with. And I know he’s rose Troy, don’t nobody wanna be gonna get me. I know I got to join his army . . . hearing all that stuff. his camp followers. But as long as I keep my strength and see him coming . . . as long as I keep up my vigilance . . . he’s gonna have to 370 2 fight to get me. I ain’t going easy. Fictional narrator in books by Joel Chandler Harris that retell traditional black folktales featuring Brer Rabbit. — EDS.

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lyons enters the yard from the street. Th irty-four troy Yeah, I done seen him. Talked to him too! Home and Family years old, troy’s son by a previous marriage, he rose You ain’t seen no devil. I done told you sports a neatly trimmed goatee, sport coat, white that man ain’t had nothing to do with the shirt, tieless and buttoned at the collar. Though devil. Anything you can’t understand, you 425 he fancies himself a musician, he is more caught want to call it the devil. up in the rituals and “idea” of being a musician troy Look here, Bono . . . I went down to see than in the actual practice of the music. He has Hertzberger about some furniture. Got three come to borrow money from troy, and while he rooms for two-ninety-eight. That what it say knows he will be successful, he is uncertain as to on the radio. “Three rooms . . . t wo-ninety- 430 what extent his lifestyle will be held up to scrutiny eigh t.” Even made up a little song about it. and ridicule. Go down there . . . man tell me I can’t get no credit. I’m working every day and can’t get

lyons Hey, Pop. 390 no credit. What to do? I got an empty house troy What you come “Hey, Popping” me for? with some raggedy furniture in it. Cory ain’t 435 lyons How you doing, Rose? (He kisses her.) got no bed. He’s sleeping on a pile of rags on Mr. Bono. How you doing? the floor. Working every day and can’t get bono Hey, Lyons . . . how you been? no credit. Come back here — Rose’ll tell troy He must have been doing all right. I ain’t 395 you — madder than hell. Sit down . . . try to seen him around here last week. figure what I’m gonna do. Come a knock on 440 rose Troy, leave your boy alone. He come by to the door. Ain’t been living here but three see you and you wanna start all that nonsense. days. Who know I’m here? Open the door . . . troy I ain’t bothering Lyons. (Offers him the devil standing there bigger than life. White bottle.) Here . . . get you a drink. We got an 400 fellow . . . white fellow . . . got on good understanding. I know why he come by to see clothes and everything. Standing there with a 445 me and he know I know. clipboard in his hand. I ain’t had to say lyons Come on, Pop . . . I just stopped by to nothing. First words come out of his mouth say hi . . . see how you was doing. was . . . “I understand you need some troy You ain’t stopped by yesterday. 405 furniture and can’t get no credit.” I liked to rose You gonna stay for supper, Lyons? I got fell over. He say, “I’ll give you all the credit 450 some chicken cooking in the oven. you want, but you got to pay the interest on lyons No, Rose . . . thanks. I was just in the neigh it.” I told him, “Give me three rooms worth borhood and thought I’d stop by for a minute. and charge whatever you want.” Next day a troy You was in the neighborhood all right, 410 truck pulled up here and two men unloaded nigger. You telling the truth there. You was in them three rooms. Man what drove the truck 455 the neighborhood cause it’s my payday. give me a book. Say send ten dollars, first of lyons Well, hell, since you mentioned it . . . let every month to the address in the book and me have ten dollars. everything will be all right. Say if I miss a troy I’ll be damned! I’ll die and go to hell and 415 payment the devil was coming back and it’ll play blackjack with the devil before I give you be hell to pay. That was fifteen years ago. To 460 ten dollars. this day . . . the first of the month I send my bono That’s what I wanna know about . . . that ten dollars, Rose’ll tell you. devil you done seen. rose Troy lying. lyons What . . . Pop done seen the devil? You 420 troy I ain’t never seen that man since. Now too much, Pops. you tell me who else that could have been but 465 158

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 158 18/08/16 12:26 PM Wilson the devil? I ain’t sold my soul or nothing like troy I told you I know some people down 510 that, you understand. Naw, I wouldn’t have there. I can get you on the rubbish if you want

truck with the devil about nothing like that. to work. I told you that the last time you came I got my furniture and pays my ten dollars the by here asking me for something. Fences first of the month just like clockwork. 470 lyons Naw, Pop . . . thanks. That ain’t for me. bono How long you say you been paying this I don’t wanna be carrying nobody’s rubbish. 515 ten dollars a month? I don’t wanna be punching nobody’s time clock. troy Fifteen years! troy What’s the matter, you too good to carry bono Hell, ain’t you finished paying for it people’s rubbish? Where you think that ten yet? How much the man done charged you? 475 dollars you talking about come from? I’m just troy Ah hell, I done paid for it. I done paid for supposed to haul people’s rubbish and give 520 it ten times over! The fact is I’m scared to stop my money to you cause you too lazy to work. paying it. You too lazy to work and wanna know why rose Troy lying. We got that furniture from you ain’t got what I got. Mr. Glickman. He ain’t paying no ten dollars 480 rose What hospital Bonnie working at? Mercy? a month to nobody. lyons She’s down at Passavant working in the 525 troy Aw hell, woman. Bono know I ain’t that laundry. big a fool. troy I ain’t got nothing as it is. I give you that lyons I was just getting ready to say . . . I know ten dollars and I got to eat beans the rest of where there’s a bridge for sale. 485 the week. Naw . . . you ain’t getting no ten troy Look here, I’ll tell you this . . . it don’t dollars here. 530 matter to me if he was the devil. It don’t lyons You ain’t got to be eating no beans. matter if the devil give credit. Somebody has I don’t know why you wanna say that. got to give it. troy I ain’t got no extra money. Gabe done rose It ought to matter. You going around 490 moved over to Miss Pearl’s paying her the talking about having truck with the devil . . . rent and things done got tight around here. 535 God’s the one you gonna have to answer to. I can’t afford to be giving you every payday. He’s the one gonna be at the Judgment. lyons I ain’t asked you to give me nothing. lyons Yeah, well, look here, Pop . . . let me I asked you to loan me ten dollars. I know you have that ten dollars. I’ll give it back to you. 495 got ten dollars. Bonnie got a job working at the hospital. troy Yeah, I got it. You know why I got it? 540 troy What I tell you, Bono? The only time I see Cause I don’t throw my money away out this nigger is when he wants something. there in the streets. You living the fast life . . . That’s the only time I see him. wanna be a musician . . . running around in lyons Come on, Pop, Mr. Bono don’t want to 500 them clubs and things . . . then, you learn to hear all that. Let me have the ten dollars. take care of yourself. You ain’t gonna find me 545 I told you Bonnie working. going and asking nobody for nothing. I done troy What that mean to me? “Bonnie working.” spent too many years without. I don’t care if she working. Go ask her for the lyons You and me is two different people, Pop. ten dollars if she working. Talking about 505 troy I done learned my mistake and learned to “Bonnie working.” Why ain’t you working? do what’s right by it. You still trying to get 550 lyons Aw, Pop, you know I can’t find no decent something for nothing. Life don’t owe you job. Where am I gonna get a job at? You know nothing. You owe it to yourself. Ask Bono. I can’t get no job. He’ll tell you I’m right.

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lyons You can’t change me, Pop. I’m thirty-four Home and Family years old. If you wanted to change me, you should have been there when I was growing up. I come by to see you . . . ask for ten dollars and 575 you want to talk about how I was raised. You don’t know nothing about how I was raised. rose Let the boy have ten dollars, Troy. troy (to lyons): What the hell you looking at me for? I ain’t got no ten dollars. You know 580 what I do with my money. (To rose.) Give him ten dollars if you want him to have it. rose I will. Just as soon as you turn it loose. troy (handing rose the money): There it is. S eventy-s ix dollars and for ty-two cents. You 585

Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon see this, Bono? Now, I ain’t gonna get but six of that back. rose You ought to stop telling that lie. Here, Gordon Parks took this photograph in 1956 as part of Lyons. (She hands him the money.) his Segregation Series, which was published in Life lyons Thanks, Rose. Look . . . I got to run . . . 590 magazine. The series focused on an African American I’ll see you later. family living in Mobile, Alabama, documenting everyday life in the Jim Crow–era south. How does troy Wait a minute. You gonna say, “thanks, this photograph illustrate some of the Rose” and ain’t gonna look to see where she challenges and tensions Troy, Rose, and their got that ten dollars from? See how they do family face? How does it contribute to your me, Bono? 595 understanding of Troy’s character in particular? lyons I know she got it from you, Pop. Thanks. I’ll give it back to you. troy There he go telling another lie. Time I see lyons You got your way of dealing with the that ten dollars . . . he’ll be owing me thirty world . . . I got mine. The only thing that 555 more. 600 matters to me is the music. lyons See you, Mr. Bono. troy Yeah, I can see that! It don’t matter how bono Take care, Lyons! you gonna eat . . . where your next dollar is lyons Thanks, Pop. I’ll see you again. coming from. You telling the truth there. lyons I know I got to eat. But I got to live too. 560 lyons exits the yard. I need something that gonna help me to get troy I don’t know why he don’t go and get him a out of the bed in the morning. Make me feel decent job and take care of that woman he got. 605 like I belong in the world. I don’t bother bono He’ll be all right, Troy. The boy is still young. nobody. I just stay with the music cause that’s troy The boy is thirty-four years old. the only way I can find to live in the world. 565 rose Let’s not get off into all that. Otherwise there ain’t no telling what I might do. bono Look here . . . I got to be going. I got to be Now I don’t come criticizing you and how you getting on. Lucille gonna be waiting. 610 live. I just come by to ask you for ten dollars. I troy (puts his arm around rose): See this don’t wanna hear all that about how I live. woman, Bono? I love this woman. I love this troy Boy, your mamma did a hell of a job 570 woman so much it hurts. I love her so much . . . raising you. I done run out of ways of loving her. So I got to 160

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 160 18/08/16 12:26 PM Wilson go back to basics. Don’t you come by my house 615 troy I ain’t complaining now. I just say it’s Monday morning talking about time to go to foolish. Trying to guess out of six hundred

work . . . ’cause I’m still gonna be stroking! ways which way the number gonna come. Fences rose Troy! Stop it now! If I had all the money niggers, these Negroes, 30 bono I ain’t paying him no mind, Rose. That throw away on numbers for one week — just ain’t nothing but gin-talk. Go on, Troy. I’ll see 620 one week — I’d be a rich man. you Monday. rose Well, you wishing and calling it foolish troy Don’t you come by my house, nigger! ain’t gonna stop folks from playing numbers. I done told you what I’m gonna be doing. That’s one thing for sure. Besides . . . some 35 The lights go down to black. good things come from playing numbers. Look where Pope done bought him that Scene 2 restaurant off of numbers. The lights come up on rose hanging up clothes. troy I can’t stand niggers like that. Man ain’t She hums and sings softly to herself. It is the had two dimes to rub together. He walking 40 following morning. around with his shoes all run over bumming rose (sings): Jesus, be a fence all around me money for cigarettes. All right. Got lucky every day there and hit the numbers . . . Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on rose Troy, I know all about it. my way. troy Had good sense, I’ll say that for him. He 45 Jesus, be a fence all around me every day. ain’t throwed his money away. I seen niggers troy enters from the house. hit the numbers and go through two thou- Jesus, I want you to protect me sand dollars in four days. Man bought him As I travel on my way. 5 that restaurant down there . . . fixe d it up (To troy.) ’Morning. You ready for breakfast? real nice . . . and then didn’t want nobody to 50 I can fix it soon as I finish hanging up these come in it! A Negro go in there and can’t get clothes? no kind of service. I seen a white fellow troy I got the coffee on. That’ll be all right. come in there and order a bowl of stew. I’ll just drink some of that this morning. 10 Pope picked all the meat out the pot for him. rose That 651 hit yesterday. That’s the second Man ain’t had nothing but a bowl of meat! 55 time this month. Miss Pearl hit for a dollar . . . Negro come behind him and ain’t got noth- seem like those that need the least always get ing but the potatoes and carrots. Talking lucky. Poor folks can’t get nothing. about what numbers do for people, you troy Them numbers don’t know nobody. 15 picked a wrong example. Ain’t done nothing I don’t know why you fool with them. You but make a worser fool out of him than he 60 and Lyons both. was before. rose It’s something to do. rose Troy, you ought to stop worrying about troy You ain’t doing nothing but throwing what happened at work yesterday. your money away. 20 troy I ain’t worried. Just told me to be down rose Troy, you know I don’t play foolishly. there at the Commissioner’s office on Friday. 65 I just play a nickel here and a nickel there. Everybody think they gonna fire me. I ain’t troy That’s two nickels you done thrown away. worried about them firing me. You ain’t got rose Now I hit sometimes . . . that makes up to worry about that. (Pause.) Where’s Cory? for it. It always comes in handy when I do hit. 25 Cory in the house? (Calls.) Cory? I don’t hear you complaining then. rose He gone out. 70 CENTRAL TEXT 161

troy Out, huh? He gone out ’cause he know I ’Cause I’m here today Home and Family want him to help me with this fence. I know And tomorrow I’ll be gone how he is. That boy scared of work. gabriel enters. gabriel enters. He comes halfway down the alley Hey, Rose! 105 and, hearing troy’s voice, stops. rose How you doing, Gabe? troy (continues): He ain’t done a lick of work in gabriel There’s Troy . . . Hey, Troy! his life. 75 troy Hey, Gabe. rose He had to go to football practice. Coach Exit into kitchen. wanted them to get in a little extra practice before the season start. rose (to gabriel): What you got there? troy I got his practice . . . runnin g out of here gabriel You know what I got, Rose. I got fruits 110 and vegetables. before he get his chores done. 80 rose Troy, what is wrong with you this morning? rose (looking in basket): Where’s all these Don’t nothing set right with you. Go on back in plums you talking about? there and go to bed . . . get up on the other side. gabriel I ain’t got no plums today, Rose. I was troy Why something got to be wrong with me? just singing that. Have some tomorrow. Put 115 me in a big order for plums. Have enough I ain’t said nothing wrong with me. 85 rose You got something to say about everything. plums tomorrow for St. Peter and everybody. First it’s the numbers . . . then it’s the way the troy reenters from kitchen, crosses to steps. man runs his restaurant . . . then you done got (to rose.) Troy’s mad at me. on Cory. What’s it gonna be next? Take a look troy I ain’t mad at you. What I got to be mad at up there and see if the weather suits you . . . or 90 you about? You ain’t done nothing to me. 120 is it gonna be how you gonna put up the fence gabriel I just moved over to Miss Pearl’s to with the clothes hanging in the yard. keep out from in your way. I ain’t mean no troy You hit the nail on the head then. harm by it. rose I know you like I know the back of my troy Who said anything about that? I ain’t said hand. Go on in there and get you some 95 anything about that. 125 coffee . . . see if that straighten you up. ’Cause gabriel You ain’t mad at me, is you? you ain’t right this morning. troy Naw . . . I ain’t mad at you, Gabe. If I was troy starts into the house and sees gabriel. mad at you I’d tell you about it. gabriel starts singing. troy’s brother, he is seven gabriel Got me two rooms. In the basement. years younger than troy. Injured in World Got my own door too. Wanna see my key? 130 War II, he has a metal plate in his head. He (He holds up a key.) That’s my own key! Ain’t carries an old trumpet tied around his waist and nobody else got a key like that. That’s my key! believes with every fiber of his being that he is the My two rooms! Archangel Gabriel. He carries a chipped basket troy Well, that’s good, Gabe. You got your own with an assortment of discarded fruits and vege- key . . . that’s good. 135 tables he has picked up in the strip district and rose You hungry, Gabe? I was just fixing to which he attempts to sell. cook Troy his breakfast. gabriel (singing): Yes, ma am, I got plums gabriel I’ll take some biscuits. You got some You ask me how I sell them biscuits? Did you know when I was in Oh ten cents apiece 100 heaven . . . every morning me and St. Peter 140 Three for a quarter would sit down by the gate and eat some big Come and buy now fat biscuits? Oh, yeah! We had us a good time. 162

then St. Peter would go off to sleep and tell troy He’s gone off somewhere. 185

me to wake him up when it’s time to open the 145 gabriel (offstage): Better get ready for the Fences gates for the judgment. judgment rose Well, come on . . . I’ll make up a batch of Better get ready for the judgment morning biscuits. Better get ready for the judgment rose exits into the house. My God is coming down gabriel Troy . . . St . Peter got your name in rose He ain’t eating right. Miss Pearl say she 190 the book. I seen it. It say . . . Troy Maxson. 150 can’t get him to eat nothing. I say . . . I know him! He got the same name troy What you want me to do about it, Rose? I like what I got. That’s my brother! done did everything I can for the man. I can’t troy How many times you gonna tell me that, make him get well. Man got half his head Gabe? blown away . . . what you expect? 195 gabriel Ain’t got my name in the book. Don’t 155 rose Seem like something ought to be done to have to have my name. I done died and went help him. to heaven. He got your name though. One troy Man don’t bother nobody. He just mixed morning St. Peter was looking at his book . . . up from that metal plate he got in his head. marking it up for the judgment . . . and he let Ain’t no sense for him to go back into the 200 me see your name. Got it in there under M. Got 160 hospital. Rose’s name . . . I ain’t seen it like I seen rose Least he be eating right. They can help yours . . . but I know it’s in there. He got a great him take care of himself. big book. Got everybody’s name what was ever troy Don’t nobody wanna be locked up, Rose. been born. That’s what he told me. But I seen What you wanna lock him up for? Man go over 205 your name. Seen it with my own eyes. 165 there and fight the war . . . messin’ around troy Go on in the house there. Rose going to with them Japs, get half his head blown off . . . fix you something to eat. and they give him a lousy three thousand gabriel Oh, I ain’t hungry. I done had breakfast dollars. And I had to swoop down on that. with Aunt Jemimah. She come by and cooked rose Is you fixing to go into that again? 210 me up a whole mess of flapjacks. Remember 170 troy That’s the only way I got a roof over my how we used to eat them flapjacks? head . . . cause of that metal plate. troy Go on in the house and get you some- rose Ain’t no sense you blaming yourself for thing to eat now. nothing. Gabe wasn’t in no condition to gabriel I got to sell my plums. I done sold manage that money. You done what was 215 some tomatoes. Got me two quarters. Wanna 175 right by him. Can’t nobody say you ain’t see? (He shows troy his quarters.) I’m gonna done what was right by him. Look how long save them and buy me a new horn so St. Peter you took care of him . . . till he wanted to can hear me when it’s time to open the gates. have his own place and moved over there (gabriel stops suddenly. Listens.) Hear that? with Miss Pearl. 220 That’s the hellhounds. I got to chase them out 180 troy That ain’t what I’m saying, woman! I’m of here. Go on get out of here! Get out! just stating the facts. If my brother didn’t gabriel exits singing. have that metal plate in his head . . . I Better get ready for the judgment wouldn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to Better get ready for the judgment throw it out of. And I’m fifty-three years old. 225 My Lord is coming down Now see if you can understand that! CENTRAL TEXT 163

troy gets up from the porch and starts to exit the troy What I care about the game? Come here, Home and Family yard. woman. (He tries to kiss her.) rose Where you going off to? You been running rose I thought you went down Taylors’ to listen out of here every Saturday for weeks. I to the game. Go on, Troy! You supposed to be 30 thought you was gonna work on this fence? putting up this fence. troy I’m gonna walk down to Taylors’. Listen to 230 troy (attempting to kiss her again): I’ll put it up the ball game. I’ll be back in a bit. I’ll work on when I finish with what is at hand. it when I get back. rose Go on, Troy. I ain’t studying you. He exits the yard. The lights go to black. troy (chasing after her): I’m studying you . . . 35 fixing to do my homework! Scene 3 rose Troy, you better leave me alone. The lights come up on the yard. It is four hours troy Where’s Cory? That boy brought his butt later. rose is taking down the clothes from the home yet? line. cory enters carrying his football equipment. rose He’s in the house doing his chores. 40 rose Your daddy like to had a fit with you troy (calling): Cory! Get your butt out here, boy! running out of here this morning without rose exits into the house with the laundry. troy doing your chores. goes over to the pile of wood, picks up a board, cory I told you I had to go to practice. and starts sawing. cory enters from the house. rose He say you were supposed to help him 5 troy You just now coming in here from leaving with this fence. this morning? cory He been saying that the last four or five cory Yeah, I had to go to football practice. Saturdays, and then he don’t never do noth- troy Yeah, what? 45 ing, but go down to Taylors. Did you tell him cory Yessir. about the recruiter? 10 troy I ain’t but two seconds off you noway. rose Yeah, I told him. The garbage sitting in there overflowing . . . cory What he say? you ain’t done none of your chores . . . and rose He ain’t said nothing too much. You get in you come in here talking about “ Ye a h .” 50 there and get started on your chores before cory I was just getting ready to do my chores he gets back. Go on and scrub down them 15 now, Pop . . . steps before he gets back here hollering and troy Your first chore is to help me with this carrying on. fence on Saturday. Everything else come after cory I’m hungry. What you got to eat, Mama? that. Now get that saw and cut them boards. 55 rose Go on and get started on your chores. I got some meat loaf in there. Go on and 20 cory takes the saw and begins cutting the boards. make you a sandwich . . . and don’t leave troy continues working. There is a long pause. no mess in there. cory Hey, Pop . . . why don’t you buy a TV? troy What I want with a TV? What I want one cory exits into the house. rose continues to take of them for? down the clothes. troy enters the yard and cory Everybody got one. Earl, Ba Bra . . . Jesse! sneaks up and grabs her from behind. troy I ain’t asked you who had one. I say what 60 Troy! Go on, now. You liked to scared me to I want with one? death. What was the score of the game? cory So you can watch it. They got lots of Lucille had me on the phone and I couldn’t 25 things on TV. Baseball games and everything. keep up with it. We could watch the World Series. 164

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 164 18/08/16 12:26 PM Wilson troy Yeah . . . and how much this TV cost? 65 hundred dollars clear, then I’ll buy a TV. cory I don’t know. They got them on sale for Right now, as soon as I get two hundred and 110

around two hundred dollars. sixty-four dollars, I’m gonna have this roof troy Two hundred dollars, huh? tarred. Fences cory That ain’t that much, Pop. cory Aw . . . Pop! troy Naw, it’s just two hundred dollars. See 70 troy You go on and get you two hundred that roof you got over your head at night? Let dollars and buy one if ya want it. I got better 115 me tell you something about that roof. It’s things to do with my money. been over ten years since that roof was last cory I can’t get no two hundred dollars. I ain’t tarred. See now . . . the snow come this never seen two hundred dollars. winter and sit up there on that roof like it 75 troy I’ll tell you what . . . yo u get you a hundred is . . . and it’s gonna seep inside. It’s just dollars and I’ll put the other hundred with it. 120 gonna be a little bit . . . ain’t gonna hardly cory All right, I’m gonna show you. notice it. Then the next thing you know, it’s troy You gonna show me how you can cut gonna be leaking all over the house. Then the them boards right now. wood rot from all that water and you gonna 80 begins to cut the boards. There is a long pause. need a whole new roof. Now, how much you cory think it cost to get that roof tarred? cory The Pirates won today. That makes five in I don’t know. cory a row. 125 troy Two hundred and sixty-four dollars . . . troy I ain’t thinking about the Pirates. Got an cash money. While you thinking about a TV, 85 all-white team. Got that boy . . . that Puerto I got to be thinking about the roof . . . and Rican boy . . . C lemente. Don’t even h alf-pl ay whatever else go wrong here. Now if you had him. That boy could be something if they give two hundred dollars, what would you do . . . him a chance. Play him one day and sit him 130 fix the roof or buy a TV? on the bench the next. cory I’d buy a TV. Then when the roof started 90 cory He gets a lot of chances to play. to leak . . . when it needed fixing . . . I’d fix it. troy I’m talking about playing regular. Playing troy Where you gonna get the money from? every day so you can get your timing. That’s You done spent it for a TV. You gonna sit up what I’m talking about. 135 and watch the water run all over your brand cory They got some white guys on the team new T V. 95 that don’t play every day. You can’t play cory Aw, Pop. You got money. I know you do. everybody at the same time. troy Where I got it at, huh? troy If they got a white fellow sitting on the cory You got it in the bank. bench . . . you can bet your last dollar he 140 troy You wanna see my bankbook? You wanna can’t play! The colored guy got to be twice as see that seventy-three dollars and twenty-two 100 good before he get on the team. That’s why cents I got sitting up in there. I don’t want you to get all tied up in them cory You ain’t got to pay for it all at one time. sports. Man on the team and what it get him? You can put a down payment on it and carry They got colored on the team and don’t use 145 it on home with you. them. Same as not having them. All them troy Not me. I ain’t gonna owe nobody noth- 105 teams the same. ing if I can help it. Miss a payment and they cory The Braves got Hank Aaron and Wes come and snatch it right out your house. Covington. Hank Aaron hit two home runs Then what you got? Now, soon as I get two today. That makes forty-three. 150

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troy Hank Aaron ain’t nobody. That what you with that football noway. You go on and get 195 Home and Family supposed to do. That’s how you supposed to play your book-learnin g so you can work yourself the game. Ain’t nothing to it. It’s just a matter up in that A&P or learn how to fix cars or of timing . . . getting the right follow-through. build houses or something, get you a trade. Hell, I can hit fort y-three home runs right now! 155 That way you have something can’t nobody cory Not off no major-lea gue pitching, you take away from you. You go on and learn how 200 couldn’t. to put your hands to some good use. Besides troy We had better pitching in the Negro hauling people’s garbage. leagues. I hit seven home runs off of Satchel cory I get good grades, Pop. That’s why the Paige. You can’t get no better than that! 160 recruiter wants to talk with you. You got to cory Sandy Koufax. He’s leading the league in keep up your grades to get recruited. This 205 strikeouts. way I’ll be going to college. I’ll get a troy I ain’t thinking of no Sandy Koufax. chance . . . cory You got Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. troy First you gonna get your butt down there I bet you couldn’t hit no home runs off of 165 to the A&P and get your job back. Warren Spahn. cory Mr. Stawicki done already hired some- 210 troy I’m through with it now. You go on and body else ’cause I told him I was playing cut them boards. (Pause.) Your mama tell me football. you done got recruited by a college football troy You a bigger fool than I thought . . . to let team? Is that right? 170 somebody take away your job so you can play cory Yeah. Coach Zellman say the recruiter some football. Where you gonna get your 215 gonna be coming by to talk to you. Get you to money to take out your girlfriend and what- sign the permission papers. not? What kind of foolishness is that to let troy I thought you supposed to be working somebody take away your job? down there at the A&P. Ain’t you suppose to 175 cory I’m still gonna be working weekends. be working down there after school? troy Naw . . . naw. You getting your butt out of 220 cory Mr. Stawicki say he gonna hold my job for here and finding you another job. me until after the football season. Say starting cory Come on, Pop! I got to practice. I can’t next week I can work weekends. work after school and play football too. troy I thought we had an understanding about 180 The team needs me. That’s what Coach this football stuff? You suppose to keep up Zellman say . . . 225 with your chores and hold that job down at troy I don’t care what nobody else say. I’m the the A&P. Ain’t been around here all day on boss . . . yo u understand? I’m the boss around a Saturday. Ain’t none of your chores here. I do the only saying what counts. done . . . and now you telling me you done 185 cory Come on, Pop! quit your job. troy I asked you . . . did you understand? 230 cory I’m going to be working weekends. cory Yeah . . . troy You damn right you are! And ain’t no troy What?! need for nobody coming around here to talk cory Yessir. to me about signing nothing. 190 troy You go on down there to that A&P and cory Hey, Pop . . . you can’t do that. He’s see if you can get your job back. If you can’t 235 coming all the way from North Carolina. do both . . . then you quit the football team. troy I don’t care where he coming from. The You’ve got to take the crookeds with the white man ain’t gonna let you get nowhere straights. 166

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 166 18/08/16 12:26 PM cory Yessir. (Pause.) Can I ask you a question? with my food . . . cause you my son. You my Wilson troy What the hell you wanna ask me? 240 flesh and blood. Not cause I like you! Cause 280

Mr. Stawicki the one you got the questions for. it’s my duty to take care of you. I owe a cory How come you ain’t never liked me? responsibility to you! Let’s get this straight Fences troy Liked you? Who the hell say I got to like right here . . . before it go along any you? What law is there say I got to like you? further . . . I ain’t got to like you. Mr. Rand Wanna stand up in my face and ask a damn 245 don’t give me my money come payday cause 285 fool-ass question like that. Talking about he likes me. He give me cause he owe me. liking somebody. Come here, boy, when I talk I done give you everything I had to give you. to you. I gave you your life! Me and your mama cory comes over to where troy is working. He worked that out between us. And liking your stands slouched over and troy shoves him on his black ass wasn’t part of the bargain. Don’t 290 shoulder. you try and go through life worrying about if somebody like you or not. You best be Straighten up, goddammit! I asked you a making sure they doing right by you. You question . . . wha t law is there say I got to like 250 understand what I’m saying, boy? you? cory Yessir. 295 cory None. troy Then get the hell out of my face, and get troy Well, all right then! Don’t you eat every on down to that A&P. day? (Pause.) Answer me when I talk to you! rose has been standing behind the screen door Don’t you eat every day? 255 for much of the scene. She enters as cory exits. cory Yeah. troy Nigger, as long as you in my house, you put rose Why don’t you let the boy go ahead that sir on the end of it when you talk to me! and play football, Troy? Ain’t no harm in cory Yes . . . sir. that. He’s just trying to be like you with the 300 troy You eat every day. 260 sports. cory Yessir! troy I don’t want him to be like me! I want him troy Got a roof over your head. to move as far away from my life as he can cory Yessir! get. You the only decent thing that ever troy Got clothes on your back. happened to me. I wish him that. But I don’t 305 cory Yessir. 265 wish him a thing else from my life. I decided troy Why you think that is? seventeen years ago that boy wasn’t getting cory Cause of you. involved in no sports. Not after what they did troy Ah, hell I know it’s cause of me . . . but to me in the sports. why do you think that is? rose Troy, why don’t you admit you was too 310 cory (hesitant): Cause you like me. 270 old to play in the major leagues? For once . . . troy Like you? I go out of here every why don’t you admit that? morning . . . bust my butt . . . putting up with troy What do you mean too old? Don’t come them crackers every day . . . ca use I like you? telling me I was too old. I just wasn’t the right You are the biggest fool I ever saw. (Pause.) color. Hell, I’m fifty- thre e years old and can 315 It’s my job. It’s my responsibility! You under- 275 do better than Selkirk’s .269 right now! stand that? A man got to take care of his rose How’s was you gonna play ball when you family. You live in my house . . . sleep you were over forty? Sometimes I can’t get no behind on my bedclothes . . . fill you belly up sense out of you.

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troy I got good sense, woman. I got sense 320 (Pause.) Aw, you lying, man. I’m gonna tell Home and Family enough not to let my boy get hurt over play- her you said that. ing no sports. You been mothering that boy rose (calling): Cory, don’t you go nowhere! too much. Worried about if people like him. cory I got to go to the game, Ma! (Into the 15 rose Everything that boy do . . . he do for you. phone.) Yeah, hey, look, I’ll talk to you later. He wants you to say “Good job, son.” That’s all. 325 Yeah, I’ll meet you over Earl’s house. Later. troy Rose, I ain’t got time for that. He’s alive. Bye, Ma. He’s healthy. He’s got to make his own way. cory exits the house and starts out the yard. I made mine. Ain’t nobody gonna hold his hand when he get out there in that world. rose Cory, where you going off to? You got that stuff all pulled out and thrown all over your room. 20 rose Times have changed from when you was 330 young, Troy. People change. The world’s cory (in the yard): I was looking for my spikes. changing around you and you can’t even see it. Jesse wanted to borrow my spikes. troy (slow, methodical): Woman . . . I do the rose Get up there and get that cleaned up best I can do. I come in here every Friday. before your daddy get back in here. cory I got to go to the game! I’ll clean it up 25 I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of lard. 335 You all line up at the door with your hands when I get back. out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give cory exits. you my sweat and my blood. I ain’t got no rose That’s all he need to do is see that room tears. I done spent them. We go upstairs in all messed up. that room at night . . . and I fall down on you 340 rose exits into the house. troy and bono enter and try to blast a hole into forever. I get up the yard. troy is dressed in clothes other than his Monday morning . . . find my lunch on the work clothes. table. I go out. Make my way. Find my strength to carry me through to the next bono He told him the same thing he told you. Friday. (Pause.) That’s all I got, Rose. That’s 345 Take it to the union. 30 all I got to give. I can’t give nothing else. troy Brownie ain’t got that much sense. Man troy exits into the house. The lights go down to wasn’t thinking about nothing. He wait until I black. confront them on it . . . then he wanna come crying seniority. (Calls.) Hey, Rose! Scene 4 bono I wish I could have seen Mr. Rand’s face 35 It is Friday. Two weeks later. cory starts out of the when he told you. house with his football equipment. The phone rings. troy He couldn’t get it out of his mouth! Liked cory (calling): I got it! (He answers the phone to bit his tongue! When they called me down and stands in the screen door talking.) Hello? there to the Commissioner’s office . . . he Hey, Jesse. Naw . . . I was just getting ready to thought they was gonna fire me. Like every- 40 leave now. body else. bono I didn’t think they was gonna fire you. rose (calling): Cory! 5 cory I told you, man, them spikes is all tore up. I thought they was gonna put you on the You can use them if you want, but they ain’t warning paper. no good. Earl got some spikes. troy Hey, Rose! (To bono.) Yeah, Mr. Rand like 45 rose (calling): Cory! to bit his tongue. cory (calling to rose): Mam? I’m talking to 10 troy breaks the seal on the bottle, takes a drink, Jesse. (Into phone.) When she say that? and hands it to bono. 168

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 168 18/08/16 12:26 PM bono I see you run right down to Taylors’ and come from up top . . . he called me in and Wilson told that Alberta gal. told me they was making me a driver.

troy (calling): Hey Rose! (To bono.) I told rose Troy, you kidding! Fences everybody. Hey, Rose! I went down there to 50 troy No I ain’t. Ask Bono. cash my check. rose Well, that’s great, Troy. Now you don’t 95 rose (entering from the house): Hush all that have to hassle them people no more. hollering, man! I know you out here. What lyons enters from the street. they say down there at the Commissioner’s troy Aw hell, I wasn’t looking to see you today. office? 55 I thought you was in jail. Got it all over the troy You supposed to come when I call you, front page of the Courier about them raiding woman. Bono’ll tell you that. (To bono.) Sefus’s place . . . where you be hanging out 100 Don’t Lucille come when you call her? with all them thugs. rose Man, hush your mouth. I ain’t no dog . . . lyons Hey, Pop . . . that ain’t got nothing to do talk about “come when you call me.” 60 with me. I don’t go down there gambling. I go troy (puts his arm around rose): You hear this, down there to sit in with the band. I ain’t got Bono? I had me an old dog used to get uppity nothing to do with the gambling part. They 105 like that. You say, “C’mere, Blue!” . . . and he got some good music down there. just lay there and look at you. End up getting troy They got some rogues . . . is what they got. a stick and chasing him away trying to make 65 lyons How you been, Mr. Bono? Hi, Rose. him come. bono I see where you playing down at the rose I ain’t studying you and your dog. I Crawford Grill tonight. 110 remember you used to sing that old song. rose How come you ain’t brought Bonnie like troy (he sings): Hear it ring! Hear it ring! I had a I told you? You should have brought Bonnie dog his name was Blue. 70 with you, she ain’t been over in a month of rose Don’t nobody wanna hear you sing that Sundays. old song. lyons I was just in the neighborhood . . . 115 troy (sings): You know Blue was mighty true. thought I’d stop by. rose Used to have Cory running around here troy Here he come . . . singing that song. 75 bono Your daddy got a promotion on the bono Hell, I remember that song myself. rubbish. He’s gonna be the first colored troy (sings): You know Blue was a good old dog. driver. Ain’t got to do nothing but sit up there 120 Blue treed a possum in a hollow log. and read the paper like them white fellows. That was my daddy’s song. My daddy made lyons Hey, Pop . . . if you knew how to read up that song. 80 you’d be all right. rose I don’t care who made it up. Don’t bono Naw . . . naw . . . you mean if the nigger nobody wanna hear you sing it. knew how to drive he’d be all right. Been 125 troy (makes a song like calling a dog): Come fighting with them people about driving and here, woman. ain’t even got a license. Mr. Rand know you rose You come in here carrying on, I reckon 85 ain’t got no driver’s license? they ain’t fired you. What they say down there troy Driving ain’t nothing. All you do is point at the Commissioner’s office? the truck where you want it to go. Driving 130 troy Look here, Rose . . . Mr. R and called me ain’t nothing. into his office today when I got back from bono Do Mr. Rand know you ain’t got no driv- talking to them people down there . . . it 90 er’s license? That’s what I’m talking about. CENTRAL TEXT 169

I ain’t asked if driving was easy. I asked if gabriel Lyons . . . The King of the Jungle! Home and Family Mr. Rand know you ain’t got no driver’s 135 Rose . . . hey, Rose. Got a flower for you. (He license. takes a rose from his pocket.) Picked it myself. troy He ain’t got to know. The man ain’t got to That’s the same rose like you is! 180 know my business. Time he find out, I have rose That’s right nice of you, Gabe. two or three driver’s licenses. lyons What you been doing, Uncle Gabe? lyons (going into his pocket): Say, look here, 140 gabriel Oh, I been chasing hellhounds and Pop . . . waiting on the time to tell St. Peter to open troy I knew it was coming. Didn’t I tell you, the gates. 185 Bono? I know what kind of “Look here, Pop” lyons You been chasing hellhounds, huh? that was. The nigger fixing to ask me for some Well . . . you doing the right thing, Uncle money. It’s Friday night. It’s my payday. All 145 Gabe. Somebody got to chase them. them rogues down there on the avenue . . . the gabriel Oh, yeah . . . I know it. The devil’s ones that ain’t in jail . . . and Lyons is hopping strong. The devil ain’t no pushover. Hellhounds 190 in his shoes to get down there with them. snipping at everybody’s heels. But I got my lyons See, Pop . . . if you give somebody else a trumpet waiting on the Judgment time. chance to talk sometimes, you’d see that I 150 lyons Waiting on the Battle of Armageddon, was fixing to pay you back your ten dollars huh? like I told you. Here . . . I told you I’d pay you gabriel Ain’t gonna be too much of a battle 195 when Bonnie got paid. when God get to waving that Judgment troy Naw . . . you go ahead and keep that ten sword. But the people’s gonna have a hell of a dollars. Put it in the bank. The next time you 155 time trying to get into heaven if them gates feel like you wanna come by here and ask me ain’t open. for something . . . you go on down there and lyons (putting his arm around gabriel): You 200 get that. hear this, Pop. Uncle Gabe, you all right! lyons Here’s your ten dollars, Pop. I told you I gabriel (laughing with lyons): Lyons! King of don’t want you to give me nothing. I just 160 the Jungle. wanted to borrow ten dollars. rose You gonna stay for supper, Gabe? Want troy Naw . . . you go on and keep that for the me to fix you a plate? 205 next time you want to ask me. gabriel I’ll take a sandwich, Rose. Don’t want lyons Come on, Pop . . . here go your ten dollars. no plate. Just wanna eat with my hands. I’ll rose Why don’t you go on and let the boy pay 165 take a sandwich. you back, Troy? rose How about you, Lyons? You staying? Got lyons Here you go, Rose. If you don’t take it some short ribs cooking. 210 I’m gonna have to hear about it for the next lyons Naw, I won’t eat nothing till after we six months. (He hands her the money.) finished playing. (Pause.) You ought to come rose You can hand yours over here too, Troy. 170 down and listen to me play Pop. troy You see this, Bono. You see how they do me. troy I don’t like that Chinese music. All that bono Yeah, Lucille do me the same way. noise. 215 gabriel is heard singing offstage. He enters. rose Go on in the house and wash up, Gabe . . . gabriel Better get ready for the Judgment! I’ll fix you a sandwich. Better get ready for . . . Hey! . . . Hey! . . . gabriel (to lyons, as he exits): Troy’s mad There’s Troy’s boy! 175 at me. lyons How are you doing, Uncle Gabe? lyons What you mad at Uncle Gabe for, Pop? 220 170

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 170 18/08/16 12:26 PM Wilson rose He thinks Troy’s mad at him cause he lyons Cory just growing up. He’s just busting at moved over to Miss Pearl’s. the seams trying to fill out your shoes.

troy I ain’t mad at the man. He can live where troy I don’t care what he’s doing. When he get 265 he want to live at. to the point where he wanna disobey me . . . Fences lyons What he move over there for? Miss Pearl 225 then it’s time for him to move on. Bono’ll tell don’t like nobody. you that. I bet he ain’t never disobeyed his rose She don’t mind him none. She treats him daddy without paying the consequences. real nice. She just don’t allow all that singing. bono I ain’t never had a chance. My daddy 270 troy She don’t mind that rent he be paying . . . came on through . . . but I ain’t never knew that’s what she don’t mind. 230 him to see him . . . or what he had on his rose Troy, I ain’t going through that with you mind or where he went. Just moving on no more. He’s over there cause he want to through. Searching out the New Land. That’s have his own place. He can come and go as what the old folks used to call it. See a fellow 275 he please. moving around from place to place . . . troy Hell, he could come and go as he please 235 woman to woman . . . called it searching out here. I wasn’t stopping him. I ain’t put no the New Land. I can’t say if he ever found it. rules on him. I come along, didn’t want no kids. Didn’t rose It ain’t the same thing, Troy. And you know if I was gonna be in one place long 280 know it. enough to fix on them right as their daddy. I figured I was going searching too. As it gabriel comes to the door. turned out I been hooked up with Lucille Now, that’s the last I wanna hear about that. 240 near about as long as your daddy been with I don’t wanna hear nothing else about Gabe Rose. Going on sixteen years. 285 and Miss Pearl. And next week . . . troy Sometimes I wish I hadn’t known my gabriel I’m ready for my sandwich, Rose. daddy. He ain’t cared nothing about no kids. rose And next week . . . when that recruiter A kid to him wasn’t nothing. All he wanted come from that school . . . I want you to sign 245 was for you to learn how to walk so he could that paper and go on and let Cory play foot- start you to working. When it come time for 290 ball. Then that’ll be the last I have to hear eating . . . he ate first. If there was anything about that. left over, that’s what you got. Man would sit troy (to rose as she exits into the house): I ain’t down and eat two chickens and give you the thinking about Cory nothing. 250 wing. lyons What . . . Cory got recruited? What lyons You ought to stop that, Pop. Everybody 295 school he going to? feed their kids. No matter how hard times troy That boy walking around here smelling his is . . . everybody care about their kids. Make piss . . . thinking he’s grown. Thinking he’s gonna sure they have something to eat. do what he want, irrespective of what I say. Look 255 troy The only thing my daddy cared about was here, Bono . . . I left the Commissioner’s office getting them bales of cotton in to Mr. Lubin. 300 and went down to the A&P . . . tha t boy ain’t That’s the only thing that mattered to him. working down there. He lying to me. Telling me Sometimes I used to wonder why he was he got his job back . . . telling me he working living. Wonder why the devil hadn’t come weekends . . . telling me he working after 260 and got him. “Get them bales of cotton in to school . . . Mr. Stawicki tell me he ain’t working Mr. Lubin” and find out he owe him 305 down there at all! money . . .

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lyons He should have just went on and left wandered back to the house and my daddy Home and Family when he saw he couldn’t get nowhere. That’s was looking for me. We down there by the what I would have done. creek enjoying ourselves when my daddy troy How he gonna leave with eleven kids? 310 come up on us. Surprised us. He had them And where he gonna go? He ain’t knew how leather straps off the mule and commenced 355 to do nothing but farm. No, he was trapped to whupping me like there was no tomorrow. and I think he knew it. But I’ll say this for I jumped up, mad and embarrassed. I was him . . . he felt a responsibility toward us. scared of my daddy. When he commenced to Maybe he ain’t treated us the way I felt he 315 whupping on me . . . quite naturally I run to should have . . . but without that responsibility get out of the way. (Pause.) Now I thought he 360 he could have walked off and left us . . . made was mad cause I ain’t done my work. But I his own way. see where he was chasing me off so he could bono A lot of them did. Back in those days have the gal for himself. When I see what the what you talking about . . . they walk out their 320 matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy. front door and just take on down one road or Right there is where I become a man . . . at 365 another and keep on walking. fourteen years of age. (Pause.) Now it was my lyons There you go! That’s what I’m talking turn to run him off. I picked up them same about. reins that he had used on me. I picked up bono Just keep on walking till you come to some- 325 them reins and commenced to whupping on thing else. Ain’t you never heard of nobody him. The gal jumped up and run off . . . and 370 having the walking blues? Well, that’s what you when my daddy turned to face me, I could call it when you just take off like that. see why the devil had never come to get troy My daddy ain’t had them walking blues! him . . . cause he was the devil himself. I What you talking about? He stayed right there 330 don’t know what happened. When I woke with his family. But he was just as evil as he up, I was laying right there by the creek, and 375 could be. My mama couldn’t stand him. Blue . . . this old dog we had . . . was licking Couldn’t stand that evilness. She run off my face. I thought I was blind. I couldn’t see when I was about eight. She sneaked off one nothing. Both my eyes were swollen shut. night after he had gone to sleep. Told me she 335 I laid there and cried. I didn’t know what I was coming back for me. I ain’t never seen was gonna do. The only thing I knew was 380 her no more. All his women run off and left the time had come for me to leave my him. He wasn’t good for nobody. daddy’s house. And right there the world When my turn come to head out, I was suddenly got big. And it was a long time fourteen and got to sniffing around Joe 340 before I could cut it down to where I could Canewell’s daughter. Had us an old mule we handle it. 385 called Greyboy. My daddy sent me out to do Part of that cutting down was when I got some plowing and I tied up Greyboy and to the place where I could feel him kicking in went to fooling around with Joe Canewell’s my blood and knew that the only thing that daughter. We done found us a nice little spot, 345 separated us was the matter of a few years. got real cozy with each other. She about gabriel enters from the house with a sandwich. thirteen and we done figured we was grown anyway . . . so we down there enjoying lyons What you got there, Uncle Gabe? 390 ourselves . . . ain’t thinking about nothing. gabriel Got me a ham sandwich. Rose gave We didn’t know Greyboy had got loose and 350 me a ham sandwich. 172

This painting by Jacob ence Lawrence is from his Migration Fences Series, which depicts the migration of African Americans from the rural south to northern urban centers over the course of several decades, beginning around 1915. How might this work offer insight into the experience that shaped Troy’s father? Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy.© 2014 Jacob Lawr Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy.©

MoMA

troy I don’t know what happened to him. I done troy (to rose): I’m telling Lyons how good he lost touch with everybody except Gabriel. But I got it. He don’t know nothing about this I’m hope he’s dead. I hope he found some peace. 395 talking. lyons That’s a heavy story, Pop. I didn’t know rose Lyons, that was Bonnie on the phone. She 425 you left home when you was fourteen. say you supposed to pick her up. troy And didn’t know nothing. The only part lyons Yeah, okay, Rose. of the world I knew was the forty-two acres of troy I walked on down to Mobile and hitched Mr. Lubin’s land. That’s all I knew about life. 400 up with some of them fellows that was head- lyons Fourteen’s kinda young to be out on ing this way. Got up here and found out . . . 430 your own. (Phone rings.) I don’t even think not only couldn’t you get a job . . . yo u I was ready to be out on my own at fourteen. couldn’t find no place to live. I thought I was I don’t know what I would have done. in freedom. Shhh. Colored folks living down troy I got up from the creek and walked on 405 there on the riverbanks in whatever kind of down to Mobile. I was through with farming. shelter they could find for themselves. Right 435 Figured I could do better in the city. So I down there under the Brady Street Bridge. walked the two hundred miles to Mobile. Living in shacks made of sticks and tarpaper. lyons Wait a minute . . . yo u ain’t walked no Messed around there and went from bad to two hundred miles, Pop. Ain’t nobody gonna 410 worse. Started stealing. First it was food. walk no two hundred miles. You talking Then I figured, hell, if I steal money I can buy 440 about some walking there. me some food. Buy me some shoes too! One bono That’s the only way you got anywhere thing led to another. Met your mama. I was back in them days. young and anxious to be a man. Met your lyons Shhh. Damn if I wouldn’t have hitched a 415 mama and had you. What I do that for? Now ride with somebody! I got to worry about feeding you and her. Got 445 troy Who you gonna hitch it with? They ain’t to steal three times as much. Went out one had no cars and things like they got now. We day looking for somebody to rob . . . that’s talking about 1918. what I was, a robber. I’ll tell you the truth. I’m rose (entering): What you all out here getting 420 ashamed of it today. But it’s the truth. Went to into? rob this fellow . . . pulled out my knife . . . 450

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and he pulled out a gun. Shot me in the chest. rose Pick up the phone and let somebody 495 Home and Family I felt just like somebody had taken a hot know you coming. And bring Bonnie with branding iron and laid it on me. When he you. You know I’m always glad to see her. shot me I jumped at him with my knife. They lyons Yeah, I’ll do that, Rose. You take care told me I killed him and they put me in the 455 now. See you, Pop. See you, Mr. Bono. See penitentiary and locked me up for fifteen you, Uncle Gabe. 500 years. That’s where I met Bono. That’s where gabriel Lyons! King of the Jungle! I learned how to play baseball. Got out that lyons exits. place and your mama had taken you and troy Is supper ready, woman? Me and you got went on to make life without me. Fifteen 460 some business to take care of. I’m gonna tear years was a long time for her to wait. But that it up too. fifteen years cured me of that robbing stuff. rose Troy, I done told you now! 505 Rose’ll tell you. She asked me when I met her troy (puts his arm around bono): Aw hell, if I had gotten all that foolishness out of my woman . . . this is Bono. Bono like family. system. And I told her, “Baby, it’s you and 465 I done known this nigger since . . . how long baseball all what count with me.” You hear I done know you? me, Bono? I meant it too. She say, “Which bono It’s been a long time. 510 one comes first?” I told her, “Baby, ain’t no troy I done know this nigger since Skippy was doubt it’s baseball . . . but you stick and get a pup. Me and him done been through some old with me and we’ll both outlive this base- 470 times. ball.” Am I right, Rose? And it’s true. bono You sure right about that. rose Man, hush your mouth. You ain’t said no troy Hell, I done know him longer than I 515 such thing. Talking about, “Baby, you know known you. And we still standing shoulder to you’ll always be number one with me.” That’s shoulder. Hey, look here, Bono . . . a man what you was talking. 475 can’t ask for no more than that. (Drinks to troy You hear that, Bono. That’s why I love her. him.) I love you, nigger. bono Rose’ll keep you straight. You get off the bono Hell, I love you too . . . I got to get home 520 track, she’ll straighten you up. see my woman. You got yours in hand. I got rose Lyons, you better get on up and get to go get mine. Bonnie. She waiting on you. 480 lyons (gets up to go): Hey, Pop, why don’t you bono starts to exit as cory enters the yard, come on down to the Grill and hear me play? dressed in his football uniform. He gives troy a troy I ain’t going down there. I’m too old to be hard, uncompromising look. sitting around in them clubs. cory What you do that for, Pop? bono You got to be good to play down at the 485 Grill. He throws his helmet down in the direction of troy. lyons Come on, Pop . . . rose What’s the matter? Cory . . . wha t’s the troy I got to get up in the morning. matter? 525 lyons You ain’t got to stay long. cory Papa done went up to the school and troy Naw, I’m gonna get my supper and go on 490 told Coach Zellman I can’t play football to bed. no more. Wouldn’t even let me play the lyons Well, I got to go. I’ll see you again. game. Told him to tell the recruiter not to troy Don’t you come around my house on my come. 530 payday. rose Troy . . . 174

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 174 18/08/16 12:27 PM Wilson troy What you Troying me for. Yeah, I did it. rose I’ll talk to him when he gets back. He had 5 And the boy know why I did it. to go see about your Uncle Gabe. The police

cory Why you wanna do that to me? That was done arrested him. Say he was disturbing the Fences the one chance I had. 535 peace. He’ll be back directly. Come on in rose Ain’t nothing wrong with Cory playing here and help me clean out the top of this football, Troy. cupboard. 10 The boy lied to me. I told the nigger if he troy cory exits into the house. rose sees troy and wanna play football . . . to keep up his chores bono coming down the alley. and hold down that job at the A&P. That was 540 the conditions. Stopped down there to see Troy . . . wha t they say down there? Mr. Stawicki . . . troy Ain’t said nothing. I give them fifty dollars cory I can’t work after school during the and they let him go. I’ll talk to you about it. football season, Pop! I tried to tell you that Where’s Cory? rose He’s in there helping me clean out these 15 Mr. Stawicki’s holding my job for me. You 545 don’t never want to listen to nobody. And cupboards. then you wanna go and do this to me! troy Tell him to get his butt out here. troy I ain’t done nothing to you. You done it to troy and bono go over to the pile of wood. yourself. bono picks up the saw and begins sawing. cory Just cause you didn’t have a chance! You 550 troy (to bono): All they want is the money. just scared I’m gonna be better than you, That makes six or seven times I done went that’s all. down there and got him. See me coming they 20 troy Come here. stick out their hands. Troy . . . rose bono Yeah. I know what you mean. That’s all cory reluctantly crosses over to troy. they care about . . . tha t money. They don’t troy All right! See. You done made a mistake. 555 care about what’s right. (Pause.) Nigger, why cory I didn’t even do nothing! you got to go and get some hard wood? You 25 troy I’m gonna tell you what your mistake was. ain’t doing nothing but building a little old See . . . yo u swung at the ball and didn’t hit it. fence. Get you some soft pine wood. That’s all That’s strike one. See, you in the batter’s box you need. now. You swung and you missed. That’s strike 560 troy I know what I’m doing. This is outside one. Don’t you strike out! wood. You put pine wood inside the house. 30 Lights fade to black. Pine wood is inside wood. This here is outside wood. Now you tell me where the fence is gonna be? ACT II bono You don’t need this wood. You can put it Scene 1 up with pine wood and it’ll stand as long as 35 The following morning. cory is at the tree hitting you gonna be here looking at it. the ball with the bat. He tries to mimic troy, but troy How you know how long I’m gonna be his swing is awkward, less sure. rose enters from here, nigger? Hell, I might just live forever. the house. Live longer than old man Horsely. rose Cory, I want you to help me with this bono That’s what Magee used to say. 40 cupboard. troy Magee’s a damn fool. Now you tell me cory I ain’t quitting the team. I don’t care what who you ever heard of gonna pull their own Poppa say. teeth with a pair of rusty pliers. CENTRAL TEXT 175

bono The old folks . . . my granddaddy used to cory exits into the house. Home and Family pull his teeth with pliers. They ain’t had no 45 What’s that supposed to mean? Wanna keep 85 dentists for the colored folks back then. us in? troy Get clean pliers! You understand? Clean bono Troy . . . I done known you seem like pliers! Sterilize them! Besides we ain’t living damn near my whole life. You and Rose both. back then. All Magee had to do was walk over I done know both of you all for a long time. to Doc Goldblum’s. 50 I remember when you met Rose. When you 90 bono I see where you and that Tallahassee was hitting them baseball out the park. A lot gal . . . that Alberta . . . I see where you all of them old gals was after you then. You had done got tight. the pick of the litter. When you picked Rose, troy What you mean “got tight”? I was happy for you. That was the first time bono I see where you be laughing and joking 55 I knew you had any sense. I said . . . My man 95 with her all the time. Troy knows what he’s doing . . . I’m gonna troy I laughs and jokes with all of them, Bono. follow this nigger . . . he might take me some- You know me. where. I been following you too. I done bono That ain’t the kind of laughing and joking learned a whole heap of things about life I’m talking about. 60 watching you. I done learned how to tell 100 cory enters from the house. where the shit lies. How to tell it from the cory How you doing, Mr. Bono? alfalfa. You done learned me a lot of things. troy Cory? Get that saw from Bono and cut You showed me how to not make the same some wood. He talking about the wood’s too mistakes . . . to take life as it comes along and hard to cut. Stand back there, Jim, and let that keep putting one foot in front of the other. 105 young boy show you how it’s done. 65 (Pause.) Rose a good woman, Troy. bono He’s sure welcome to it. troy Hell, nigger, I know she a good woman. I cory takes the saw and begins to cut the wood. been married to her for eighteen years. What you got on your mind, Bono? Whew- e-e! Look at that. Big old strong boy. bono I just say she a good woman. Just like I 110 Look like Joe Louis. Hell, must be getting old say anything. I ain’t got to have nothing on the way I’m watching that boy whip through my mind. that wood. 70 cory I don’t see why Mama want a fence troy You just gonna say she a good woman around the yard noways. and leave it hanging out there like that? Why troy Damn if I know either. What the hell she you telling me she a good woman? 115 keeping out with it? She ain’t got nothing bono She loves you, Troy. Rose loves you. nobody want. 75 troy You saying I don’t measure up. That’s bono Some people build fences to keep people what you trying to say. I don’t measure up out . . . and other people build fences to keep cause I’m seeing this other gal. I know what people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all. you trying to say. 120 She loves you. bono I know what Rose means to you, Troy. troy Hell, nigger, I don’t need nobody to tell 80 I’m just trying to say I don’t want to see you me my wife loves me. Cory . . . go on in the mess up. house and see if you can find that other saw. troy Yeah, I appreciate that, Bono. If you was cory Where’s it at? messing around on Lucille I’d be telling you 125 troy I said find it! Look for it till you find it! the same thing. 176

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 176 18/08/16 12:27 PM bono Well, that’s all I got to say. I just say that money. I wanna see you put that fence up by Wilson because I love you both. yourself. That’s what I want to see. You’ll be 170

troy Hell, you know me . . . I wasn’t out there here another six months without me. Fences looking for nothing. You can’t find a better 130 troy Nigger, you ain’t right. woman than Rose. I know that. But seems bono When it comes to my money . . . I’m right like this woman just stuck onto me where I as fireworks on the Fourth of July. can’t shake her loose. I done wrestled with it, troy All right, we gonna see now. You better 175 tried to throw her off me . . . but she just get out your bankbook. stuck on tighter. Now she’s stuck on for good. 135 bono exits, and troy continues to work. rose bono You’s in control . . . that’s what you tell me enters from the house. all the time. You responsible for what you do. rose What they say down there? What’s troy I ain’t ducking the responsibility of it. As happening with Gabe? long as it sets right in my heart . . . then I’m troy I went down there and got him out. Cost okay. Cause that’s all I listen to. It’ll tell me 140 me fifty dollars. Say he was disturbing the 180 right from wrong every time. And I ain’t talk- peace. Judge set up a hearing for him in three ing about doing Rose no bad turn. I love weeks. Say to show cause why he shouldn’t Rose. She done carried me a long ways and I be recommitted. love and respect her for that. rose What was he doing that cause them to bono I know you do. That’s why I don’t want to 145 arrest him? 185 see you hurt her. But what you gonna do when troy Some kids was teasing him and he run she find out? What you got then? If you try and them off home. Say he was howling and juggle both of them . . . sooner or later you carrying on. Some folks seen him and called gonna drop one of them. That’s common sense. the police. That’s all it was. troy Yeah, I hear what you saying, Bono. I 150 rose Well, what’s you say? What’d you tell the 190 been trying to figure a way to work it out. judge? bono Work it out right, Troy. I don’t want to be troy Told him I’d look after him. It didn’t make getting all up between you and Rose’s no sense to recommit the man. He stuck out business . . . but work it so it come out right. his big greasy palm and told me to give him troy Ah hell, I get all up between you and 155 fifty dollars and take him on home. 195 Lucille’s business. When you gonna get that rose Where’s he at now? Where’d he go off to? woman that refrigerator she been wanting? troy He’s gone about his business. He don’t Don’t tell me you ain’t got no money now. need nobody to hold his hand. I know who your banker is. Mellon don’t rose Well, I don’t know. Seem like that would need that money bad as Lucille want that 160 be the best place for him if they did put him 200 refrigerator. I’ll tell you that. into the hospital. I know what you’re gonna bono Tell you what I’ll do . . . when you finish say. But that’s what I think would be best. building this fence for Rose . . . I’ll buy Lucille troy The man done had his life ruined fight- that refrigerator. ing for what? And they wanna take and lock troy You done stuck your foot in your mouth now! 165 him up. Let him be free. He don’t bother 205 troy grabs up a board and begins to saw. bono nobody. starts to walk out the yard. rose Well, everybody got their own way of Hey, nigger . . . where you going? looking at it I guess. Come on and get your bono I’m going home. I know you don’t expect lunch. I got a bowl of lima beans and some me to help you now. I’m protecting my cornbread in the oven. Come and get 210

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something to eat. Ain’t no sense you fretting gabriel Fellow that give me this quarter had a Home and Family over Gabe. whole mess of them. I’m gonna keep this 250 rose turns to go into the house. quarter till it stop shining. rose Gabe, go on in the house there. I got some troy Rose . . . got something to tell you. watermelon in the Frigidaire. Go on and get rose Well, come on . . . wait till I get this food you a piece. on the table. 215 gabriel Say, Rose . . . you know I was chasing 255 troy Rose! hellhounds and them bad mens come and get She stops and turns around. me and take me away. Troy helped me. He come down there and told them they better let I don’t know how to say this. (Pause.) I can’t me go before he beat them up. Yeah, he did! explain it none. It just sort of grows on you till rose You go on and get you a piece of water- 260 it gets out of hand. It starts out like a little melon, Gabe. Them bad mens is gone now. bush . . . and the next thing you know it’s a 220 gabriel Okay, Rose . . . gonn a get me some whole forest. watermelon. The kind with the stripes on it. rose Troy . . . wha t is you talking about? troy I’m talking, woman, let me talk. I’m trying gabriel exits into the house. to find a way to tell you . . . I’m gonna be a rose Why, Troy? Why? After all these years to daddy. I’m gonna be somebody’s daddy. 225 come dragging this in to me now. It don’t 265 rose Troy . . . yo u’re not telling me this? You’re make no sense at your age. I could have gonna be . . . what? expected this ten or fifteen years ago, but not troy Rose . . . now . . . see . . . now. rose You telling me you gonna be somebody’s troy Age ain’t got nothing to do with it, Rose. daddy? You telling your wife this? 230 rose I done tried to be everything a wife 270 gabriel enters from the street. He carries a rose should be. Everything a wife could be. Been in his hand. married eighteen years and I got to live to see gabriel Hey, Troy! Hey, Rose! the day you tell me you been seeing another rose I have to wait eighteen years to hear woman and done fathered a child by her. And something like this. you know I ain’t never wanted no half noth- 275 gabriel Hey, Rose . . . I got a flower for you. ing in my family. My whole family is half. (He hands it to her.) That’s a rose. Same rose 235 Everybody got different fathers and like you is. mothers . . . my two sisters and my brother. rose Thanks, Gabe. Can’t hardly tell who’s who. Can’t never sit gabriel Troy, you ain’t mad at me is you? down and talk about Papa and Mama. It’s 280 Them bad mens come and put me away. You your papa and your mama and my papa and ain’t mad at me is you? 240 my mama . . . troy Naw, Gabe, I ain’t mad at you. troy Rose . . . stop it now. rose Eighteen years and you wanna come with rose I ain’t never wanted that for none of my this. children. And now you wanna drag your 285 gabriel (takes a quarter out of his pocket): See behind in here and tell me something like what I got? Got a brand new quarter. 245 this. troy Rose . . . it’s just . . . troy You ought to know. It’s time for you to rose Ain’t nothing you can say, Troy. Ain’t no know. way of explaining that. rose Well, I don’t want to know, goddamn it! 290 178

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 178 18/08/16 12:27 PM Wilson troy I can’t just make it go away. It’s done now. rose What the hell was I there for? That was my 335 I can’t wish the circumstance of the thing job, not somebody else’s.

away. troy Rose, I done tried all my life to live rose And you don’t want to either. Maybe you decent . . . to live a clean . . . hard . . . useful Fences want to wish me and my boy away. Maybe 295 life. I tried to be a good husband to you. In that’s what you want? Well, you can’t wish us every way I knew how. Maybe I come into the 340 away. I’ve got eighteen years of my life world backwards, I don’t know. But . . . you invested in you. You ought to have stayed born with two strikes on you before you come upstairs in my bed where you belong. to the plate. You got to guard it closely . . . troy Rose . . . now listen to me . . . we can get a 300 always looking for the curve ball on the inside handle on this thing. We can talk this out . . . corner. You can’t afford to let none get past 345 come to an understanding. you. You can’t afford a call strike. If you going rose All of a sudden it’s “we.” Where was “we” down . . . you going down swinging. at when you was down there rolling around Everything lined up against you. What you with some godforsaken woman? “We” should 305 gonna do. I fooled them, Rose. I bunted. have come to an understanding before you When I found you and Cory and a halfway 350 started making a damn fool of yourself. decent job . . . I was safe. Couldn’t nothing You’re a day late and a dollar short when it touch me. I wasn’t gonna strike out no more. comes to an understanding with me. I wasn’t going back to the penitentiary. troy It’s just . . . She gives me a different 310 I wasn’t gonna lay in the streets with a bottle idea . . . a different understanding about of wine. I was safe. I had me a family. A job. I 355 myself. I can step out of this house and get wasn’t gonna get that last strike. I was on first away from the pressures and problems . . . be looking for one of them boys to knock me in. a different man. I ain’t got to wonder how I’m To get me home. gonna pay the bills or get the roof fixed. I can 315 rose You should have stayed in my bed, Troy. just be a part of myself that I ain’t never been. troy Then when I saw that gal . . . she firmed 360 rose What I want to know . . . is do you plan up my backbone. And I got to thinking that if to continue seeing her. That’s all you can say I tried . . . I just might be able to steal second. to me. Do you understand after eighteen years I troy I can sit up in her house and laugh. Do 320 wanted to steal second. you understand what I’m saying. I can laugh rose You should have held me tight. You 365 out loud . . . and it feels good. It reaches all should have grabbed me and held on. the way down to the bottom of my shoes. troy I stood on first base for eighteen years (Pause.) Rose, I can’t give that up. and I thought . . . well, goddamn it . . . go on rose Maybe you ought to go on and stay down 325 for it! there with her . . . if she’s a better woman rose We’re not talking about baseball! We’re 370 than me. talking about you going off to lay in bed with troy It ain’t about nobody being a better another woman . . . and then bring it home woman or nothing. Rose, you ain’t the blame. to me. That’s what we’re talking about. We A man couldn’t ask for no woman to be a 330 ain’t talking about no baseball. better wife than you’ve been. I’m responsible troy Rose, you’re not listening to me. I’m 375 for it. I done locked myself into a pattern trying the best I can to explain it to you. It’s trying to take care of you all that I forgot not easy for me to admit that I been standing about myself. in the same place for eighteen years.

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rose I been standing with you! I been right with the darkness falling in on me . . . I gave Home and Family here with you, Troy. I got a life too. I gave 380 everything I had to try and erase the doubt eighteen years of my life to stand in the same that you wasn’t the finest man in the world. 400 spot with you. Don’t you think I ever wanted And wherever you was going . . . I wanted to other things? Don’t you think I had dreams be there with you. Cause you was my and hopes? What about my life? What about husband. Cause that’s the only way I was me. Don’t you think it ever crossed my mind 385 gonna survive as your wife. You always to want to know other men? That I wanted to talking about what you give . . . and what you 410 lay up somewhere and forget about my don’t have to give. But you take too. You responsibilities? That I wanted someone to take . . . and don’t even know nobody’s make me laugh so I could feel good? You not giving! the only one who’s got wants and needs. But I 390 rose turns to exit into the house; troy grabs her held on to you, Troy. I took all my feelings, arm. my wants and needs, my dreams . . . and I buried them inside you. I planted a seed and troy You say I take and don’t give! watched and prayed over it. I planted myself rose Troy! You’re hurting me! 415 inside you and waited to bloom. And it didn’t 395 troy You say I take and don’t give! take me no eighteen years to find out the soil rose Troy . . . yo u’re hurting my arm! Let go! was hard and rocky and it wasn’t never gonna troy I done give you everything I got. Don’t bloom. you tell that lie on me. But I held on to you, Troy. I held you rose Troy! 420 tighter. You was my husband. I owed you 400 troy Don’t you tell that lie on me! everything I had. Every part of me I could cory enters from the house. find to give you. And upstairs in that room . . . cory Mama! rose Troy. You’re hurting me. troy Don’t you tell me about no taking and giving. cory comes up behind troy and grabs him. troy, surprised, is thrown off balance just as cory throws a glancing blow that catches him on the chest and knocks him down. troy is stunned, as is cory.

rose Troy. Troy. No! 425

troy gets to his feet and starts at cory.

Troy . . . no. Please! Troy! rose pulls on troy to hold him back. troy stops Joan Marcus himself. troy (to cory): All right. That’s strike two. You This photograph is from a 2010 stage production of stay away from around me, boy. Don’t you Fences starring Denzel Washington as Troy and Viola strike out. You living with a full count. Don’t Davis as Rose. In what ways does this photograph from a stage production of Fences capture the you strike out. 430 relationship between Troy and Rose? troy exits out the yard as the lights go down. 180

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 180 18/08/16 12:27 PM Wilson Scene 2 rose You ain’t been home from work but time 40 It is six months later, early afternoon. troy enters enough to change your clothes and run

from the house and starts to exit the yard. rose out . . . and you wanna call that the best you Fences enters from the house. can do? troy I’m going over to the hospital to see rose Troy, I want to talk to you. Alberta. She went into the hospital this after- 45 troy All of a sudden, after all this time, you want noon. Look like she might have the baby to talk to me, huh? You ain’t wanted to talk to early. I won’t be gone long. me for months. You ain’t wanted to talk to me rose Well, you ought to know. They went last night. You ain’t wanted no part of me then. 5 over to Miss Pearl’s and got Gabe today. What you wanna talk to me about now? She said you told them to go ahead and lock 50 rose Tomorrow’s Friday. him up. troy I know what day tomorrow is. You think troy I ain’t said no such thing. Whoever told I don’t know tomorrow’s Friday? My you that is telling a lie. Pearl ain’t doing noth- whole life I ain’t done nothing but look to see 10 ing but telling a big fat lie. Friday coming and you got to tell me it’s rose She ain’t had to tell me. I read it on the 55 Friday. papers. rose I want to know if you’re coming home. troy I ain’t told them nothing of the kind. troy I always come home, Rose. You know rose I saw it right there on the papers. that. There ain’t never been a night I ain’t 15 troy What it say, huh? come home. rose It said you told them to take him. 60 rose That ain’t what I mean . . . and you know troy Then they screwed that up, just the way it. I want to know if you’re coming straight they screw up everything. I ain’t worried home after work. about what they got on the paper. troy I figure I’d cash my check . . . han g out at 20 rose Say the government send part of his check Taylors’ with the boys . . . ma ybe play a game to the hospital and the other part to you. 65 of checkers . . . troy I ain’t got nothing to do with that if that’s rose Troy, I can’t live like this. I won’t live like the way it works. I ain’t made up the rules this. You livin’ on borrowed time with me. It’s about how it work. been going on six months now you ain’t been 25 rose You did Gabe just like you did Cory. You coming home. wouldn’t sign the paper for Cory . . . bu t you 70 troy I be here every night. Every night of the signed for Gabe. You signed that paper. year. That’s 365 days. rose I want you to come home tomorrow after The telephone is heard ringing inside the house. work. 30 troy I told you I ain’t signed nothing, woman! troy Rose . . . I don’t mess up my pay. You The only thing I signed was the release form. know that now. I take my pay and I give it to Hell, I can’t read, I don’t know what they had you. I don’t have no money but what you give on that paper! I ain’t signed nothing about 75 me back. I just want to have a little time to sending Gabe away. myself . . . a little time to enjoy life. 35 rose I said send him to the hospital . . . yo u rose What about me? When’s my time to said let him be free . . . now you done went enjoy life? down there and signed him to the hospital for troy I don’t know what to tell you, Rose. I’m half his money. You went back on yourself, 80 doing the best I can. Troy. You gonna have to answer for that.

CENTRAL TEXT 181

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PROOFS enters and stands on the porch. There is is There on the porch. stands and enters rose op of your list say Troy Maxson Troy say list op of your Publishers. and she ain’t got no m All right All ): him consume me a fence and build take gonna I’m do. me a build gonna See? I’m this yard. around And then I me. to belongs what fence around See? You on the other side. stay to you want for me. ready you’re until there over stay Bring army. Bring come on. your you Then I clothes. wrestling Bring your sickle. your this vigilance on my fall down ain’t gonna up on me no sneak ain’t gonna You time. for me ready When you more. t come up You here. come around when you Ain’t nobody door. on the front and knock is This else do with to got nothing this. stay You man. to Man between and me. you ready you fence until of that on the other side on the come up and knock you Then for me. for be ready I’ll want. you Anytime door. front you. a wee ain’t but She arms. in my daughter nothing don’t know She old thing. little bittie innocent She business. grownups’ about now rose rose The lights go down to go black. down lights The The lights come up on the porch. It is late evening evening late is It come up on the porch. lights The to ball the listening sits rose later. days three for troygame waiting exits into the house. troy exits the house. rose into yard. troy troy switches rose madeis off the radio. and carrying in wrapped the yard infant an enters back the house and stands from He blankets. calls. of which the weight silence, awkward a long, heavier with second. eachgrows passing troy PAGE School 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 High by’s by’s ba Worth the .

& . UNCORRECTED

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some space. That’s all. Just give me some give all. Just That’s some space. breathe. to room mouth. “Who’s gonna bury gonna I’m her?” Like “Who’s mouth. for myself. task on that fixing take to had any insurance. any had herself. the world by herself. the world by gonna burygonna her. couldn’t do nothing for her. do nothing couldn’t all right, ain’t it? all right, only right only her. had the baby. had doing got papers on my brother anyway? Miss Miss anyway? brother on my got papers doing tell gonna And I’m lie. fat a big telling Pearl ain’t seen I nothing it too! You her about signed. Say to Miss Pearl. She done got mad cause she cause got done mad She Pearl. Miss to all it money. That’s rent Gabe’s ain’t getting anything. say to liable She’s is. distributed roy rose rose troy rose rose troy troy rose rose troy rose rose troy troy rose rose rose rose rose t troy rose rose troy exits into the house to answer the telephone. exits the houserose to answer the telephone. into returns. she Presently rose rose rose troy troy (and

5 Home and Family 2017 © 182 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 182 Copyright She turns and exits into the house. Scene 4 Wilson troy Well . . . I guess we’ll just sit out here on It is two months later. lyons enters from the the porch. street. He knocks on the door and calls. Fences He sits down on the porch. There is an awkward lyons Hey, Rose! (Pause.): Rose! indelicateness about the way he handles the rose (from inside the house): Stop that yelling. baby. His largeness engulfs and seems to swallow You gonna wake up Raynell. I just got her to it. He speaks loud enough for rose to hear. sleep. lyons I just stopped by to pay Papa this twenty 5 A man’s got to do what’s right for him. I ain’t dollars I owe him. Where’s Papa at? sorry for nothing I done. It felt right in my 10 rose He should be here in a minute. I’m heart. (To the baby.) What you smiling at? getting ready to go down to the church. Sit Your daddy’s a big man. Got these great big down and wait on him. old hands. But sometimes he’s scared. And lyons I got to go pick up Bonnie over her 10 right now your daddy’s scared cause we mother’s house. sitting out here and ain’t got no home. Oh, 15 rose Well, sit it down there on the table. He’ll I been homeless before. I ain’t had no little get it. baby with me. But I been homeless. You just lyons (enters the house and sets the money on be out on the road by your lonesome and you the table): Tell Papa I said thanks. I’ll see you 15 see one of them trains coming and you just again. kinda go like this . . . 20 rose All right, Lyons. We’ll see you. He sings as a lullaby. Please, Mr. Engineer let a man ride the line lyons starts to exit as cory enters. Please, Mr. Engineer let a man ride the line cory Hey, Lyons. I ain’t got no ticket please let me ride the blinds lyons What’s happening, Cory? Say man, I’m rose enters from the house. troy, hearing her sorry I missed your graduation. You know 20 steps behind him, stands and faces her. I had a gig and couldn’t get away. Otherwise, She’s my daughter, Rose. My own flesh and I would have been there, man. So what you doing? blood. I can’t deny her no more than I can 25 deny them boys. (Pause.) You and them boys cory I’m trying to find a job. is my family. You and them and this child is lyons Yeah I know how that go, man. It’s rough 25 all I got in the world. So I guess what I’m out here. Jobs are scarce. saying is . . . I’ d appreciate it if you’d help me cory Yeah, I know. lyons Look here, I got to run. Talk to Papa . . . take care of her. 30 rose Okay, Troy . . . yo u’re right. I’ll take he know some people. He’ll be able to help care of your baby for you . . . cause . . . like get you a job. Talk to him . . . se e what he say. 30 you say . . . she’s innocent . . . and you can’t cory Yeah . . . all right, Lyons. visit the sins of the father upon the child. lyons: You take care. I’ll talk to you soon. We’ll find some time to talk. A motherless child has got a hard time. (She 35 takes the baby from him.) From right now . . . lyons exits the yard. cory wanders over to the this child got a mother. But you a womanless tree, picks up the bat, and assumes a batting man. stance. He studies an imaginary pitcher and rose turns and exits into the house with the swings. Dissatisfied with the result, he tries again. baby. Lights go down to black. troy enters. They eye each other for a beat. cory

CENTRAL TEXT 183

puts the bat down and exits the yard. troy starts troy They keep switching me around. Got me Home and Family into the house as rose exits with raynell. She is out in Greentree now . . . hauling white folks’ carrying a cake. garbage. 70 bono Greentree, huh? You lucky, at least you troy I’m coming in and everybody’s going out. ain’t got to be lifting them barrels. Damn if rose I’m taking this cake down to the church 35 they ain’t getting heavier. I’m gonna put in for the bake sale. Lyons was by to see you. He my two years and call it quits. stopped by to pay you your twenty dollars. It’s troy I’m thinking about retiring myself. 75 laying in there on the table. bono You got it easy. You can drive for another troy (going into his pocket): Well . . . here go five years. this money. 40 troy It ain’t the same, Bono. It ain’t like work- rose Put it in there on the table, Troy. I’ll get it. ing the back of the truck. Ain’t got nobody to troy What time you coming back? talk to . . . feel like you working by yourself. 80 rose Ain’t no use in you studying me. It don’t Naw, I’m thinking about retiring. How’s matter what time I come back. Lucille? troy I just asked you a question, woman. What’s 45 bono She all right. Her arthritis get to acting up the matter . . . can’t I ask you a question? on her sometime. Saw Rose on my way in. rose Troy, I don’t want to go into it. Your She going down to the church, huh? 85 dinner’s in there on the stove. All you got to troy Yeah, she took up going down there. All do is heat it up. And don’t you be eating the them preachers looking for somebody to fatten rest of them cakes in there. I’m coming back 50 their pockets. (Pause.) Got some gin here. for them. We having a bake sale at the church bono Naw, thanks. I just stopped by to say tomorrow. hello. 90 rose exits the yard. troy sits down on the steps, troy Hell, nigger . . . you can take a drink. I takes a pint bottle from his pocket, opens it, and ain’t never known you to say no to a drink. drinks. He begins to sing You ain’t got to work tomorrow. bono I just stopped by. I’m fixing to go over to troy Hear it ring! Hear it ring! Skinner’s. We got us a domino game going 95 Had an old dog his name was Blue over his house every Friday. You know Blue was mighty true 55 troy Nigger, you can’t play no dominoes. I You know Blue was a good old dog used to whup you four games out of five. Blue trees a possum in a hollow log bono Well, that learned me. I’m getting better. You know from that he was a good old dog troy Yeah? Well, that’s all right. 100 bono Look here . . . I got to be getting on. Stop bono enters the yard. by sometime, huh? bono Hey, Troy. troy Yeah, I’ll do that, Bono. Lucille told Rose troy Hey, what’s happening, Bono? 60 you bought her a new refrigerator. bono I just thought I’d stop by to see you. bono Yeah, Rose told Lucille you had finally built 105 troy What you stop by and see me for? You your fence . . . so I figured we’d call it even. ain’t stopped by in a month of Sundays. Hell, troy I knew you would. I must owe you money or something. bono Yeah . . . okay. I’ll be talking to you. bono Since you got your promotion I can’t keep 65 troy Yeah, take care, Bono. Good to see you. up with you. Used to see you every day. Now I I’m gonna stop over. 110 don’t even know what route you working. bono Yeah. Okay, Troy. 184

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 184 18/08/16 12:27 PM bono exits. troy drinks from the bottle. troy Oh, I see . . . I don’t count around here no Wilson more. You ain’t got to say excuse me to your troy Old Blue died and I dig his grave daddy. All of a sudden you done got so grown

Let him down with a golden chain Fences that your daddy don’t count around here no Every night when I hear old Blue bark more . . . Aro und here in his own house and 150 I know Blue treed a possum in Noah’s Ark. 115 yard that he done paid for with the sweat of his Hear it ring! Hear it ring! brow. You done got so grown to where you cory enters the yard. They eye each other for a gonna take over. You gonna take over my beat. troy is sitting in the middle of the steps. house. Is that right? You gonna wear my pants. cory walks over. You gonna go in there and stretch out on my 155 bed. You ain’t got to say excuse me cause I cory I got to get by. don’t count around here no more. Is that right? troy Say what? What’s you say? cory That’s right. You always talking this dumb cory You in my way. I got to get by. stuff. Now, why don’t you just get out my way? troy You got to get by where? This is my house. 120 troy I guess you got someplace to sleep and some- 160 Bought and paid for. In full. Took me fifteen thing to put in your belly. You got that, huh? You years. And if you wanna go in my house and got that? That’s what you need. You got that, huh? I’m sitting on the steps . . . yo u say excuse cory You don’t know what I got. You ain’t got me. Like your mama taught you. to worry about what I got. cory Come on, Pop . . . I got to get by. 125 troy You right! You one hundred percent right! 165 cory starts to maneuver his way past troy. I done spent the last seventeen years worry- troy grabs his leg and shoves him back. ing about what you got. Now it’s your turn, troy You just gonna walk over top of me? see? I’ll tell you what to do. You grown . . . we cory I live here too! done established that. You a man. Now, let’s troy (advancing toward him): You just gonna see you act like one. Turn your behind 170 walk over top of me in my own house? around and walk out this yard. And when you cory I ain’t scared of you. 130 get out there in the alley . . . yo u can forget troy I ain’t asked if you was scared of me. I about this house. See? Cause this is my asked you if you was fixing to walk over top of house. You go on and be a man and get your me in my own house? That’s the question. own house. You can forget about this. Cause 175 You ain’t gonna say excuse me? You just this is mine. You go on and get yours cause gonna walk over top of me? 135 I’m through with doing for you. cory If you wanna put it like that. cory You talking about what you did for me . . . troy How else am I gonna put it? what’d you ever give me? cory I was walking by you to go into the house troy Them feet and bones! That pumping 180 cause you sitting on the steps drunk, singing heart, nigger! I give you more than anybody to yourself. You can put it like that. 140 else is ever gonna give you. troy Without saying excuse me??? cory You ain’t never gave me nothing! You ain’t never done nothing but hold me back. cory doesn’t respond. Afraid I was gonna be better than you. All you 185 I asked you a question. Without saying excuse ever did was try and make me scared of you. me??? I used to tremble every time you called my cory I ain’t got to say excuse me to you. You name. Every time I heard your footsteps in don’t count around here no more. 145 the house. Wondering all the time . . . wha t’s

CENTRAL TEXT 185

Papa gonna say if I do this? . . . Wh at’s he 190 Home and Family gonna say if I do that? . . . Wh at’s Papa gonna This photograph of James Earl Jones as Troy say if I turn on the radio? And Mama, too . . . Maxson in the 1987 Broadway production of Fences she tries . . . but she’s scared of you. is entitled, “Troy Maxson takes a swing at troy You leave your mama out of this. She ain’t death.” How does this image capture the got nothing to do with this. 195 ambiguity of a central metaphor in the play? cory I don’t know how she stand you . . . after what you did to her. troy I told you to leave your mama out of this!

He advances toward cory.

cory What you gonna do . . . give me a whupping? You can’t whup me no more. 200 You’re too old. You just an old man. troy (shoves him on his shoulder): Nigger! That’s what you are. You just another nigger on the street to me! cory You crazy! You know that? 205 troy Go on now! You got the devil in you. Get on away from me! cory You just a crazy old man . . . talkin g about I got the devil in me. troy Yeah, I’m crazy! If you don’t get on the other 210 side of that yard . . . I’m gonna show you how crazy I am! Go on . . . get the hell out of my yard. cory It ain’t your yard. You took Uncle Gabe’s money he got from the army to buy this house and then you put him out. 215 troy (advances on cory): Get your black ass © 1987 Ron Scherl / StageImage / The Image Works out of my yard! troy’s advance backs cory up against the tree. troy You’re gonna have to use it! You wanna cory grabs up the bat. draw that bat back on me . . . yo u’re gonna have to use it. cory I ain’t going nowhere! Come on . . . put Come on! . . . Come on! me out! I ain’t scared of you. cory troy That’s my bat! 220 cory swings the bat at troy a second time. He cory Come on! misses. troy continues to advance toward him. troy Put my bat down! troy You’re gonna have to kill me! You wanna 230 cory Come on, put me out. draw that bat back on me. You’re gonna have to kill me. cory swings at troy, who backs across the yard. cory, backed up against the tree, can go no What’s the matter? You so bad . . . put me out! farther. troy taunts him. He sticks out his head troy advances toward cory. and offers him a target.

cory (backing up): Come on! Come on! 225 Come on! Come on!

186

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 186 18/08/16 12:27 PM Wilson cory is unable to swing the bat. troy grabs it. raynell It don’t look like it never gonna grow. 10 troy Then I’ll show you. Dag! rose I told you a watched pot never boils. Get

cory and troy struggle over the bat. The struggle Fences in here and get dressed. is fierce and fully engaged. troy ultimately is the raynell This ain’t even no pot, Mama. stronger and takes the bat from cory and stands rose You just have to give it a chance. It’ll grow. 15 over him ready to swing. He stops himself. Now you come on and do what I told you. We Go on and get away from around my house. 235 got to be getting ready. This ain’t no morning cory, stung by his defeat, picks himself up, walks to be playing around. You hear me? slowly out of the yard and up the alley. raynell Yes, Mam. cory Tell Mama I’ll be back for my things. rose exits into the house. raynell continues to troy They’ll be on the other side of that fence. poke at her garden with a stick. cory enters. He is cory exits. dressed in a Marine corporal’s uniform, and carries a duffel bag. His posture is that of a troy I can’t taste nothing. Helluljah! I can’t military man, and his speech has a clipped taste nothing no more. (troy assumes a sternness. batting posture and begins to taunt Death, the 240 fastball on the outside corner.) Come on! It’s cory (to raynell): Hi. (Pause.) I bet your name 20 between you and me now! Come on! Anytime is Raynell. you want! Come on! I be ready for you . . . but raynell Uh huh. I ain’t gonna be easy. cory Is your mama home? The lights go down on the scene. raynell runs up on the porch and calls through the screen door. Scene 5 raynell Mama . . . there ’s some man out here. The time is 1965. The lights come up in the yard. It Mama? 25 is the morning of troy’s funeral. A funeral plaque rose comes to the door. with a light hangs beside the door. There is a small garden plot off to the side. There is noise and rose Cory? Lord have mercy! Look here, you all! activity in the house as rose, lyons, and bono rose and cory embrace in a tearful reunion as have gathered. The door opens and raynell, bono and lyons enter from the house dressed in seven years old, enters dressed in a flannel night- funeral clothes. gown. She crosses to the garden and pokes around bono Aw, looka here . . . with a stick. rose calls from the house. rose Done got all grown up! rose Raynell! cory Don’t cry, Mama. What you crying about? raynell Mam? rose I’m just so glad you made it. 30 rose What you doing out there? cory Hey Lyons. How you doing, Mr. Bono. raynell Nothing. lyons goes to embrace cory. comes to the door. rose lyons Look at you, man. Look at you. Don’t he rose Girl, get in here and get dressed. What 5 look good, Rose. Got them Corporal stripes. you doing? rose What took you so long? raynell Seeing if my garden growed. cory You know how the Marines are, Mama. 35 rose I told you it ain’t gonna grow overnight. They got to get all their paperwork straight You got to wait. before they let you do anything.

CENTRAL TEXT 187

rose Well, I’m sure glad you made it. They let cory Yeah, I done found the right one, Lyons. 80 Home and Family Lyons come. Your Uncle Gabe’s still in the It’s about time. hospital. They don’t know if they gonna let him 40 lyons Me and Bonnie been split up about out or not. I just talked to them a little while ago. four years now. About the time Papa lyons A Corporal in the United States Marines. retired. I guess she just got tired of all them bono Your daddy knew you had it in you. He changes I was putting her through. (Pause.) 85 used to tell me all the time. I always knew you was gonna make some- lyons Don’t he look good, Mr. Bono? 45 thing out yourself. Your head was always in bono Yeah, he remind me of Troy when I first the right direction. So . . . yo u gonna stay met him. (Pause.) Say, Rose, Lucille’s down at in . . . make it a career . . . put in your twenty the church with the choir. I’m gonna go down years? 90 and get the pallbearers lined up. I’ll be back cory I don’t know. I got six already, I think to get you all. 50 that’s enough. rose Thanks, Jim. lyons Stick with Uncle Sam and retire early. cory See you, Mr. Bono. Ain’t nothing out here. I guess Rose told you lyons (with his arm around raynell): Cory . . . what happened with me. They got me down 95 look at Raynell. Ain’t she precious? She the workhouse. I thought I was being slick gonna break a whole lot of hearts. 55 cashing other people’s checks. rose Raynell, come and say hello to your cory How much time you doing? brother. This is your brother, Cory. You lyons They give me three years. I got that beat remember Cory. now. I ain’t got but nine more months. It ain’t 100 raynell No, Mam. so bad. You learn to deal with it like anything cory She don’t remember me, Mama. 60 else. You got to take the crookeds with the rose Well, we talk about you. She heard us talk straights. That’s what Papa used to say. He about you. (To raynell.) This is your brother, used to say that when he struck out. I seen Cory. Come on and say hello. him strike out three times in a row . . . and 105 raynell Hi. the next time up he hit the ball over the cory Hi. So you’re Raynell. Mama told me a lot 65 grandstand. Right out there in Homestead about you. Field. He wasn’t satisfied hitting in the rose You all come on into the house and let me seats . . . he want to hit it over everything! fix you some breakfast. Keep up your strength. After the game he had two hundred people 110 cory I ain’t hungry, Mama. standing around waiting to shake his hand. lyons You can fix me something, Rose. I’ll be in 70 You got to take the crookeds with the there in a minute. straights. Yeah, Papa was something else. rose Cory, you sure you don’t want nothing? I cory You still playing? know they ain’t feeding you right. lyons Cory . . . yo u know I’m gonna do that. 115 cory No, Mama . . . thank s. I don’t feel like There’s some fellows down there we got us a eating. I’ll get something later. 75 band . . . we gonna try and stay together rose Raynell . . . get on upstairs and get that when we get out . . . but yeah, I’m still play- dress on like I told you. ing. It still helps me to get out of bed in the morning. As long as it do that I’m gonna be 120 rose and raynell exit into the house. right there playing and trying to make some lyons So . . . I hear you thinking about getting sense out of it. married. rose (calling): Lyons, I got these eggs in the pan. 188

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 188 18/08/16 12:27 PM Wilson lyons Let me go on and get these eggs, man. come to this? You standing there all healthy 160 Get ready to go bury Papa. (Pause.) How you 125 and grown talking about you ain’t going to

doing? You doing all right? your daddy’s funeral? cory Mama . . . listen . . . Fences cory nods. lyons touches him on the shoulder rose I don’t want to hear it, Cory. You just get and they share a moment of silent grief. lyons that thought out of your head. 165 exits into the house. cory wanders about the cory I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I yard. raynell enters. go. I’ve got to say no to him. One time in my raynell Hi. life I’ve got to say no. cory Hi. rose Don’t nobody have to listen to nothing raynell Did you used to sleep in my room? like that. I know you and your daddy ain’t 170 cory Yeah . . . that used to be my room. 130 seen eye to eye, but I ain’t got to listen to that raynell That’s what Papa call it. “Cory’s room.” kind of talk this morning. Whatever was It got your football in the closet. between you and your daddy . . . the time has rose comes to the door. come to put it aside. Just take it and set it over there on the shelf and forget about it. 175 rose Raynell, get in there and get them good Disrespecting your daddy ain’t gonna make shoes on. you a man, Cory. You got to find a way to raynell Mama, can’t I wear these? Them other 135 come to that on your own. Not going to your one hurt my feet. daddy’s funeral ain’t gonna make you a man. rose Well, they just gonna have to hurt your feet cory The whole time I was growing up . . . 180 for a while. You ain’t said they hurt your feet living in his house . . . Pa pa was like a shadow when you went down to the store and got them. that followed you everywhere. It weighed on raynell They didn’t hurt then. My feet done 140 you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap got bigger. around you and lay there until you couldn’t rose Don’t you give me no backtalk now. You tell which one was you anymore. That 185 get in there and get them shoes on. shadow digging in your flesh. Trying to crawl raynell exits into the house. in. Trying to live through you. Everywhere I Ain’t too much changed. He still got that piece looked, Troy Maxson was staring back at of rag tied to that tree. He was out here 145 me . . . hiding under the bed . . . in the closet. swinging that bat. I was just ready to go back I’m just saying I’ve got to find a way to get rid 190 in the house. He swung that bat and then he of that shadow, Mama. just fell over. Seem like he swung it and stood rose You just like him. You got him in you there with this grin on his face . . . and then he good. just fell over. They carried him on down to the 150 cory Don’t tell me that, Mama. hospital, but I knew there wasn’t no need . . . rose You Troy Maxson all over again. 195 why don’t you come on in the house? cory I don’t want to be Troy Maxson. I want to cory Mama . . . I got something to tell you. I be me. don’t know how to tell you this . . . but I’ve rose You can’t be nobody but who you are, got to tell you . . . I’m not going to Papa’s 155 Cory. That shadow wasn’t nothing but you funeral. growing into yourself. You either got to grow 200 rose Boy, hush your mouth. That’s your daddy into it or cut it down to fit you. But that’s all you talking about. I don’t want hear that kind you got to make life with. That’s all you got to of talk this morning. I done raised you to measure yourself against that world out there.

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Your daddy wanted you to be everything he Home and Family wasn’t . . . and at the same time he tried to 205 August Wilson has said that this collage by African make you into everything he was. I don’t know American artist Romare Bearden inspired if he was right or wrong . . . but I do know he Fences. What elements in this work do you see meant to do more good than he meant to do reflected in the play? What characteristics do harm. He wasn’t always right. Sometimes the two share? when he touched he bruised. And sometimes 210 when he took me in his arms he cut. When I first met your daddy I thought . . . Here is a man I can lay down with and make a baby. That’s the first thing I thought when I

seen him. I was thirty years old and had done 215 ork, NY seen my share of men. But when he walked up to me and said, “I can dance a waltz that’ll make you dizzy,” I thought, Rose Lee, here is a man that you can open yourself up to and

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be filled to bursting. Here is a man that can New Y Licensed by VAGA,

fill all them empty spaces you been tipping around the edges of. One of them empty spaces was being somebody’s mother. I married your daddy and settled down to cooking his supper and keeping clean sheets 225 on the bed. When your daddy walked through the house he was so big he filled it Art © Romare Bearden Foundation Bearden Art © Romare up. That was my first mistake. Not to make him leave some room for me. For my part in the matter. But at that time I wanted that. I 230 The phone rings. wanted a house that I could sing in. And Like I’d been blessed to relive a part of my that’s what your daddy gave me. I didn’t life. And if the Lord see fit to keep up my know to keep up his strength I had to give up strength . . . I’m gonna do her just like your 250 little pieces of mine. I did that. I took on his daddy did you . . . I’m gonna give her the best life as mine and mixed up the pieces so that 235 of what’s in me. you couldn’t hardly tell which was which anymore. It was my choice. It was my life and raynell (entering, still with her old shoes): I didn’t have to live it like that. But that’s what Mama . . . Re verend Tollivier on the phone. life offered me in the way of being a woman rose exits into the house. and I took it. I grabbed hold of it with both 240 hands. raynell Hi. 255 By the time Raynell came into the house, cory Hi. me and your daddy had done lost touch with raynell You in the Army or the Marines? one another. I didn’t want to make my cory Marines. blessing off of nobody’s misfortune . . . but I 245 raynell Papa said it was the Army. Did you took on to Raynell like she was all them know Blue? 260 babies I had wanted and never had. cory Blue? Who’s Blue? 190

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 190 18/08/16 12:27 PM raynell Papa’s dog what he sing about all the raynell Okay, I’ll be back. Wilson time. raynell exits into the house. cory gets up and cory (singing): Hear it ring! Hear it ring! crosses over to the tree. rose stands in the screen Fences I had a dog his name was Blue 265 door watching him. gabriel enters from the alley. You know Blue was mighty true gabriel (calling): Hey, Rose! You know Blue was a good old dog rose Gabe? 300 Blue treed a possum in a hollow log gabriel I’m here, Rose. Hey Rose, I’m here! You know from that he was a good old dog. Hear it ring! Hear it ring! 270 rose enters from the house. raynell joins in singing. rose Lord . . . Look here, Lyons! lyons See, I told you, Rose . . . I told you they’d cory and raynell Blue treed a possum out on let him come. a limb cory How you doing, Uncle Gabe? 305 Blue looked at me and I looked at him lyons How you doing, Uncle Gabe? Grabbed that possum and put him in a sack gabriel Hey, Rose. It’s time. It’s time to tell Blue stayed there till I came back St. Peter to open the gates. Troy, you ready? Old Blue’s feets was big and round 275 You ready, Troy. I’m gonna tell St. Peter to Never allowed a possum to touch the ground. open the gates. You get ready now. 310 Old Blue died and I dug his grave I dug his grave with a silver spade gabriel, with great fanfare, braces himself to Let him down with a golden chain blow. The trumpet is without a mouthpiece. He And every night I call his name 280 puts the end of it into his mouth and blows with Go on Blue, you good dog you great force, like a man who has been waiting Go on Blue, you good dog you some twenty-odd years for this single moment. raynell Blue laid down and died like a man No sound comes out of the trumpet. He braces Blue laid down and died . . . himself and blows again with the same result. both Blue laid down and died like a man 285 A third time he blows. There is a weight of impos- Now he’s treeing possums in the Promised sible description that falls away and leaves him Land bare and exposed to a frightful realization. It is a I’m gonna tell you this to let you know trauma that a sane and normal mind would be Blue’s gone where the good dogs go unable to withstand. He begins to dance. A slow, When I hear old Blue bark strange dance, eerie and life-givin g. A dance of When I hear old Blue bark 290 atavistic signature and ritual. lyons attempts to Blue treed a possum in Noah’s Ark embrace him. gabriel pushes lyons away. He Blue treed a possum in Noah’s Ark. begins to howl in what is an attempt at song, or rose comes to the screen door. perhaps a song turning back into itself in an attempt at speech. He finishes his dance and the rose Cory, we gonna be ready to go in a gates of heaven stand open as wide as God’s minute. closet. cory (to raynell): You go on in the house and 295 change them shoes like Mama told you so we That’s the way that go! can go to Papa’s funeral. [1985]

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION Home and Family 1. Troy Maxson’s last name makes subtle reference to singing to herself. Her song imploring Jesus to “be the Mason-Dixon Line — the imaginary line that in a fence all around me every day” reflects one of the 1820s divided slave states from free states. the play’s important themes. How do different How does this allusion to history help prepare you characters relate to and define fences? Whom do for the play’s themes? What are the connotations fences keep out, and whom do they enclose? of other characters’ names — for example, Rose Consider also how fences relate to baseball. and Gabriel? Explain why this is an appropriate title for the play. 2. What is the significance of the biblical and 8. In act I, scene 3, Troy explains why he refuses to supernatural allusions that appear throughout the sign Cory’s recruitment papers: “The white man play? Consider the story of Troy getting furniture from ain’t gonna let you get nowhere with that football the devil, and the behavior and history of Gabriel. noway. You go on and get your book-learning so 3. In the stage directions for act I, scene 1, August you can work yourself up in that A&P or learn how Wilson describes Troy as “a large man with thick, to fix cars or build houses or something, get you a heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to trade. That way you have something can’t nobody fill out and make an accommodation with.” How take away from you. You go on and learn how to does this description establish the character of put your hands to some good use. Besides hauling Troy? Consider also Troy’s encounters with people’s garbage” (ll. 193–202). Could there be Death — the way he taunts Death to come and get more to his refusal than the explanation he offers? him, asserting that he will go down swinging. What Explain. might Wilson be saying about Troy’s character with 9. What is the significance of Troy’s triumph at work, these descriptions? earning the right to drive the garbage truck (act I, 4. How does Rose’s assertion in act I, scene 1, that scene 4)? What is ironic about this victory? How “Times have changed” (l. 239) set the mood for the and why does his promotion affect his relationship action that follows? How does it anticipate the with Bono? themes Wilson will explore more specifically 10. Why do you think the playwright chose not to have through his characters and the action of the play? Alberta make an appearance on stage? How does 5. How do you interpret Lyons’s response to his she appear in your imagination? How would you father’s criticism of his lifestyle: “I know I got to eat. describe her? But I got to live too. I need something that gonna 11. Is Troy a hypocrite? Do his relationships with help me to get out of the bed in the morning. Make Alberta and Cory make his assertions regarding me feel like I belong in the world” (I.1.559–62)? family responsibilities and duty ring false? Discuss what it is that makes each of the central 12. When Cory returns after Troy’s death, he tells characters feel some sense of belonging in the Rose, “I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I go. world: Troy, Rose, Lyons, and Cory. I’ve got to say no to him” (II.5.164–65). What finally 6. What role does Bono play in the development of convinces Cory to attend Troy’s funeral? What Troy’s character? Pick a scene that you think shows does his attending the funeral suggest about what Bono’s role most clearly, and then explain. Cory’s future might hold and what kind of home 7. At the opening of act I, scene 2, Rose is hanging and family he will have? Has he said “no” to his up clothes in the early morning, humming and father?

QUESTIONS ON STYLE AND STRUCTURE

1. Three texts, all written by Wilson, precede the actual language Wilson uses (“in His Largeness and Laws,” opening of the play: a four-line poem, a description “the porch lacks congruence,” “The city devoured of the setting, and a more discursive piece entitled them,” “new energies that used loyalty and “The Play.” Although these texts provide specific patriotism as its fuel”). information, they also raise larger issues. What are 2. In act I, scene 1, Troy’s friend Bono chides him about some of these? Pay particular attention to the “that Alberta gal” (l. 48). What is significant about the

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 192 18/08/16 12:27 PM introduction of this complicating element before we studying you . . . fixing to do my homework!” Wilson meet Troy’s wife? What might this foreshadow in the (I.3.35–36). In other instances, Wilson brings in play? How does this teasing introduce a compli dialect through songs the characters recall or sing.

cation within the play’s exposition? How does the dialect affect your understanding of Fences 3. Early in the play (act I, scene 1), Wilson’s stage the play? Do you find that the style of the direction for Rose indicates that she “alternates characters’ language, which reflects the period between the porch and the kitchen.” Throughout when the action occurs, dates the play for the play, she is associated with food and contemporary viewers? preparation. Examine specific passages and 8. In act II, scene 1, Troy uses baseball metaphors examples, and discuss how Wilson uses this (“steal second,” “stood on first base for eighteen association to develop the character of Rose. years”) to explain his affair with Alberta to Rose. 4. Why do you think Wilson holds off until the end of How is this use of language consistent with Troy’s act I to have Troy reveal his past and his own character? On what basis does Rose reject the confrontation with his father at age fourteen? Why comparison? Consider the metaphor she chooses does Wilson have Troy tell the story as a flashback as she counters with an explanation of how she to Lyons and Bono rather than to Cory? Pay has tried to live her life. special attention to Troy’s tone; how does this 9. Wilson has described Fences as having a “blues section contribute to your understanding of his aesthetic.” Songs, and particularly the blues, play character? an important role in Wilson’s plays. Where do you 5. Much of the play is concerned with money: earning see the influence of the blues on Fences? Is it in it, owing it, paying for things. Yet Wilson alerts us the diction? the syntax? the themes? the structure? to a metaphorical level when Troy insists, “Life Or does it show itself in some other way? don’t owe you nothing. You owe it to yourself” 10. The character of Gabriel has puzzled readers, (I.1.550–51). Discuss how the language of audiences, and even directors; one even commerce — debt, payment, purchase, cheating — suggested that he be dropped from the script to develops important themes in the play. keep from confusing audiences. Some see him as 6. What do you think is the climax of Fences? Explain a spiritual presence with a visible link to the African your reasoning. past. What elements of plot and character depend on him? Explain how you do or do not see Gabriel 7. Much of Fences is written in dialect, depicting the as essential to Fences. Include the final scene in natural speech patterns of the characters in the your interpretation. play. In one example, Troy teases Rose with: “I’m

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING

1. Rose is a character who has provoked a great deal 3. Tragic heroes possess a character flaw or commit of controversy: some see her as a strong matriarch an error of judgment that leads to their downfall who holds her family together, while others argue and a reversal of fortune. Write an essay explaining that she enables Troy’s worst behaviors. Write an why you believe that Troy is a tragic hero, paying essay explaining your view of Rose. Consider both careful attention to ways in which this play her assertion that she “ain’t never wanted no half diverges from the classical model. nothing in [her] family” (II.1.274–75) and her 4. Fences is most often interpreted as a “generational decision to bring Raynell into the Maxson family. play.” In fact, August Wilson scholar Sandra 2. In the description of Troy Maxson that precedes Shannon describes a 1997 production in Beijing the play, Wilson writes, “at times he can be crude with an all-Chinese cast in which both audience and almost vulgar, though he is capable of rising to members and actors found that “their connections profound heights of expression.” Write an essay to Fences seemed to have had more to do with the analyzing the character of Troy as embodying this shifting of a powerful nation’s economic and tension. Discuss which inclination you believe generational center from one determined by ultimately prevails. tradition to one responding to the trappings of

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modernization.” Discuss the generational conflicts but the images are available online at www.

Home and Family in this play, and consider how they are reflective of phillipscollection.org/migration_series. Choose one more universal experiences than ones specific to painting that particularly appeals to you, and write the African American experience. about how it helps you visualize the historical 5. Write a eulogy to be read at Troy Maxson’s movement. funeral. Include details from his life that would 8. Throughout the play, Troy uses baseball metaphors help mourners see that “he meant to do more to explain how he thinks and feels. Try omitting the good than he meant to do harm” (II.5.205–6). metaphor and rewriting Troy’s speech to Rose in Choose the speaker of your eulogy carefully. It act II, scene 1, more literally (beginning with could be any of the characters in the play, or “But . . . you born with two strikes on you before someone else entirely. you come to the plate” on lines 340–42). How does 6. Imagine that ten years have elapsed since Troy’s the loss of the baseball metaphor affect the power death, and Cory and Lyons return home to of the speech? celebrate Rose’s birthday. Write a dialogue 9. The time frame of Fences spans several major between the half brothers in which they reminisce historical moments for African Americans in the about their father. nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Reconstruction, 7. Troy Maxson took part in the Great Migration of the Great Migration, the Great Depression, and the rural blacks from the South to urban centers in the civil rights movement. Write an essay explaining how North. The artist Jacob Lawrence has chronicled the historical and social forces of these eras are this journey in his Migration Series. The series is reflected either in the play as a whole or in the housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, character of Troy Maxson.

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The Metamorphosis

FRANZ KAFKA Translated by Alexis Walker

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to middle-class Jewish parents, Franz Kafka (1883–1924) spoke Czech in his childhood but studied in German-speaking schools. He graduated from the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague with a law degree. Kafka was employed for many years at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute, and he wrote after his working hours. He published The

Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild Metamorphosis (1915) and The Penal Colony (1919) during his lifetime. After his via Getty Images death from tuberculosis, three other novels were published, despite his request that the manuscripts be destroyed: The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926), and Amerika (1927). Over the course of his life, Kafka wrote hundreds of letters to family and close friends, including his father, with whom he had a strained and formal relationship. Michiko Kakutani, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for the New York Times, has said that Kafka’s letters and works of fiction share “the same nervous attention to minute particulars; the same paranoid awareness of shifting balances of power; the same atmosphere of emotional suffocation — combined, surprisingly enough, with moments of boyish ardor and delight.”

I “What has happened to me?” he thought. It wasn’t a dream. His room — a decent enough hen Gregor Samsa awoke in his bed one room for a person, if slightly too small — la y morning from unquiet dreams, he found W quietly between the four familiar walls. Over the himself transformed into an enormous insect.* table on which was spread his unpacked collec- He lay on a back as hard as armor and saw, tions of fabric samples — Sams a was a traveling when he raised his head slightly, a jutting brown salesman — hung the picture that he had underbelly divided into arching segments. The recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and bedcovers could barely cover it; they threatened fit into an attractive gilt frame. The picture was to slide off altogether. His many legs, pitifully of a woman clad in a fur hat and a fur stole; she thin in comparison with the rest of his bulk, flut- sat upright and held out to the viewer a thick fur tered helplessly before his eyes. muff into which her entire forearm disappeared.

* Translator’s note: The closest English equivalents to the German Gregor’s gaze then directed itself to the word Kafka uses here (Ungeziefer) are “vermin” and “pest”—the window. The dreary weather — one could hear German word denotes parasitic and otherwise objectionable creatures (including fleas, lice, rats, mice, etc.) and connotes raindrops hit the metal awning over the uncleanness. “Insect” is a compromise: though at once more window — made him quite melancholy. “What if specific and less evocative than the original, it sidesteps problems of I slept a bit longer and forgot all this foolish- agreement (“vermin” being almost always plural in English) and of tone (“pest” being more colloquial than the German Ungeziefer). ness,” he thought. But that was altogether

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impossible, because he was used to sleeping on the money to pay off my parents’ debt — it Home and Family his right side, and his current condition made should only be another five or six years — I’ll working himself into this position impossible. definitely do it. Then I’ll make my big break. In No matter how vigorously he swung himself over the meantime, I have to get up — my train leaves to the right, he immediately rolled again onto his at five.” back. He tried what seemed hundreds of times, And he looked over at the alarm clock that closing his eyes in order to avoid having to see ticked on the bureau. “God in heaven!” he his wriggling legs. He finally gave up only when thought. It was six-thirt y, and the hands of the he began to feel in his side a small dull ache that clock went quietly on; it was even later than six- he had never felt before. thir ty — it was closer to six-forty-five. Shouldn’t “Oh, God,” he thought, “what a strenuous the alarm have gone off? He could see from the profession I’ve chosen — tra veling day in, day bed that it was correctly set for four o’clock; it out! The demands of business are far greater on must have gone off. But was it possible to sleep the road than they are at the home office, and peacefully through that furniture-ra ttling noise? I’m burdened with the annoyances of travel Of course, he hadn’t actually slept peacefully, besides: the worry about train connections; the but he had no doubt for that reason slept more irregular, bad meals; a social life limited to pass- deeply. But what should he do now? The next ing acquaintances who never become real train left at seven o’clock. In order to catch that friends. To hell with it!” He felt an itch on his one, he’d have to rush like a madman, and his belly, and he shoved himself back against the samples weren’t packed up yet. He hardly felt bedpost so he could lift his head more easily. He alert or energetic enough. And even if he found the spot that itched: it was covered with caught the train, he wouldn’t avoid the small white dots that he couldn’t identify. He Director’s wrath, because the office porter had went to touch the spot with one of his legs but been waiting at the five-o’ clock train and would drew it back immediately, because the touch long since have reported his failure to appear. made him shudder. The porter was completely under the Director’s He slid back into his former position. “This 5 thumb — he had neither a backbone nor brains. early rising,” he thought, “can make you into a What if Gregor were to report himself sick? But complete idiot. A man needs his sleep. Other that would be highly awkward and suspicious, travelers live like women in a harem. When, for because he had not been sick once in five years example, I go back to my hotel during the course of service. The Director would certainly come of the morning to write up orders, these gentle- with the insurance doctor. He would reproach men are just sitting down to breakfast. I should his parents for their lazy son and dismiss all try that with the Director: I’d be fired on the rejoinders by referring them to the doctor, who spot. Who knows, though — tha t might be good considered all people completely healthy, but for me. If it weren’t for my parents, I would have work-averse. And would he be so wrong in given notice long ago: I would have confronted this case? Gregor actually felt completely fine, the Director and given him a piece of my mind. despite a fatigue completely unwarranted He would have fallen off his chair! It’s incredible after such a long sleep. He even had a the way he has of sitting perched at his reading powerful appetite. desk and speaking from on high to employees As he thought all this over hurriedly, without who, on top of everything, have to draw very being able to decide whether to leave his bed — near owing to his slight deafness. Oh well, the clock had just struck six-forty-five — there I shouldn’t give up hope altogether: once I have was a knock on the door near the head of his 196

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 196 18/08/16 12:28 PM bed. “Gregor,” he heard — it was his mother — possibly from lying in an awkward position, that Kafka “it’s a quarter to seven. Weren’t you going on a proved to be sheer imagination once he got up. trip?” What a gentle voice! Gregor was terrified He was eager to see how today’s fantasies would The Metamorphosis when he heard his answer. It was unmistakably gradually resolve themselves. He didn’t doubt in in his old voice, but had mixed in, as if from the least that the change in his voice was nothing down deep, an irrepressible, painful, squeaking more than the harbinger of a hearty cold, one of noise, which allowed words to be heard clearly the occupational hazards of traveling salesmen. when first uttered, but as they resonated, Throwing off the covers was perfectly distorted them to such an extent that they were simple: he only needed to puff himself up a bit difficult to understand. Gregor had wanted to and they fell off on their own. But doing more answer in detail and explain everything, but in than that was difficult, especially because he was light of the circumstances he limited himself to so strangely broad. He would normally have saying: “Yes, yes, thanks, Mother, I’m getting up.” used his arms and hands to get up; now, he had The wooden door seemed to make the change only the many little legs which were continu- in Gregor’s voice imperceptible outside the ously moving in every direction and which he room, because his mother was satisfied with his could not seem to control. If he meant to bend explanation and shuffled away. But through this one, it would be the first one to stretch itself out, brief exchange the other family members had if he finally succeeded in enforcing his will with become aware that Gregor was unexpectedly one leg, all the rest of them worked furiously, as still at home, and his father was already knock- if liberated, in extreme, painful agitation. “You ing on one side door — lightly, but with his fist. can’t just lie here in bed doing nothing,” Gregor “Gregor, Gregor,” he called, “What’s going on?” said to himself. And after a short pause he urged again, with a At first he intended to get out of the bed with 10 deeper voice: Gregor! Gregor!” At the other side the lower part of his body foremost, but this door, his sister fretted softly: “Gregor? Are you lower part, which he had moreover not yet seen ill? Do you need something?” To both sides, and of which he could not form a proper mental Gregor answered, “I’m just about ready to image, proved too difficult to move. It went go,” and he made an effort to ban anything extremely slowly. When, nearly frantic, he finally conspicuous from his voice by the most pains- gathered his strength and recklessly shoved taking enunciation and by inserting long pauses himself forward, he misjudged the direction and between individual words. His father returned to violently struck the lower bed post. The burning his breakfast, but his sister whispered: “Gregor, pain he felt convinced him that the lower part of open up, I beg you.” Gregor had no intention of his body was at least at the moment the most opening the door, however — inst ead he gave sensitive part. thanks for his habitual precaution, born of much He afterwards attempted to get his upper travel, of locking all doors during the night, even body out of bed and carefully turned his head at home. towards the edge of the bed. This he could do First he wanted to get up, quietly and easily, and in spite of its bulk and weight, the undisturbed, get dressed, and above all eat mass of his body finally slowly followed the breakfast — only then did he want to think over direction of his head. But when he held his head what came next, because he could see that he at last free of the bed, he became afraid to shift would come to no reasonable conclusions as further in this direction, because if he ultimately long as he lay in bed. In the past he had often felt let himself fall like that, it would be a miracle if one mild pain or another while lying in bed, his head were not injured. And now, of all times,

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he could not afford to lose consciousness; he When, by rocking back and forth, Gregor Home and Family would rather remain in bed. moved halfway off of the bed — the new method After continued effort, however, he found was more a game than an exertion — it occurred himself lying exactly as before, and heaved a to him how simple everything would be if sigh. He saw his little legs struggling against someone would come help him. Two strong one another even more furiously, if that were people — he thought of his father and the possible, and he saw no way of introducing servant girl — would be more than adequate. calm and order to this anarchy. At this point he They would only have to shove their arms under repeated to himself that he could not possibly his domed back, pry him up out of bed, prop up lie in bed any longer and that it would be most his bulk by crouching low, and then help him sensible to risk everything, even if there were complete the turn over onto the floor, where only the smallest hope of thereby freeing himself hopefully his little legs would gain some sense of from bed. At the same time, however, he kept purpose. Quite apart from the fact that the doors reminding himself that calm deliberation was were locked, though, should he really call for always better than rash decision-mak ing. All the help? In spite of his predicament he couldn’t while he tried hard to focus on the view from suppress a smile at the thought. the window, but unfortunately there was little He was already so far along that he could 15 encouragement or cheer to gain from the sight hardly maintain his balance when he rocked of the morning fog, which shrouded even the forcefully. Very soon he would have to make a opposite side of the narrow street. “Already final decision, because in five minutes it would seven o’clock,” he said to himself with the latest be seven-fifteen. Just then the front doorbell striking of the alarm clock, “already seven rang. “That’s someone from the company,” he o’clock and still such fog.” And he lay quiet a said to himself and virtually froze, though his short while, breathing shallowly, as if he thought little legs only danced more hurriedly. complete stillness might restore things to their Everything remained quiet for a moment. true and natural state. “They’re not opening the door,” Gregor said to After a bit, however, he said to himself, himself, momentarily carried away by some “Before it strikes seven-fifte en, I must without absurd hope. But then, naturally, as always, the fail be completely out of bed. For one thing, servant girl directed her firm step to the door someone from the company will have come by and opened it. Gregor needed to hear only the then to inquire after me, because the office first word of greeting from the visitor and he opens before seven.” And he concentrated his already knew who it was — the Deputy Director efforts toward swinging his entire body out of himself. Why was Gregor condemned to work at the bed all at the same time. If he let himself fall a company where the least infraction immedi- out of bed in this manner, his head, which he ately attracted the greatest suspicion? Were all would raise sharply during the fall, would employees then without exception scoundrels; presumably remain uninjured. His back seemed were there among them no loyal, devoted indi- to be hard; nothing would happen to it in the fall viduals who, when they had merely missed a few onto the carpet. His greatest source of misgiving morning hours of service, would become so was anticipation of the loud crash that would tormented by pangs of conscience that they follow, which would probably arouse anxiety, if would be frankly unable to leave their beds? not terror, beyond the doors. That would have to Wouldn’t it really have been enough to send an be risked, however. apprentice to inquire — if indeed this inquiry

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 198 18/08/16 12:28 PM were necessary at all? Did the Deputy Director but the company. I almost worry that he never Kafka himself have to come, thereby showing the entire goes out at night; he has been in the city eight innocent family that the investigation of this days now, but he was at home every night. He The Metamorphosis suspicious situation could only be entrusted to sits with us at the table and quietly reads the the Deputy Director himself? And more as a newspaper or studies train schedules. Busying result of the agitation into which this line of himself with woodworking is as far as he goes in thought transported Gregor, than as a result of a the way of amusement. In the course of two, proper decision, he swung himself with all his three evenings, for example, he cut himself a might out of the bed. There was a loud thump, small frame; you would be astounded at how but no actual crash. The fall was muffled a bit by pretty it is. It’s hanging in his room; you will see the carpet, and his back was more elastic than it right away, when Gregor opens up. I am Gregor had thought — these things accounted for happy, in any case, that you’re here, Deputy the fairly inconspicuous dull thump. He had Director. We could not have persuaded Gregor failed only to raise his head carefully enough and to open the door alone; he is so stubborn; and had struck it. He twisted it back and forth and there’s certainly something wrong with him, rubbed it into the carpet out of anger and pain. although he denied it this morning.” “I’m “Something happened inside there,” said the coming right away,” said Gregor slowly and care- Deputy Director in the room to the left. Gregor fully, while not moving at all, in order not to tried to imagine something similar to what had miss a word of the conversation. “Otherwise, happened to him today happening to the dear woman, I can’t explain it myself, either,” Deputy Director; it really was possible, after all. said the Deputy Director. “Hopefully it’s But as if in cruel response to this question the nothing serious. Though I must say, that we Deputy Director took a few decisive steps in the businessmen — either fortunately or unfortu- next room, making his patent leather boots nately, as you will — mus t often ignore a trivial creak. From the room to the right Gregor’s sister indisposition in the interest of business.” “So can whispered to inform him: “Gregor, the Deputy the Deputy Director come in to see you?” asked Director is here.” “I know,” said Gregor to his impatient father, knocking again at the door. himself; but he did not dare to raise his voice “No,” said Gregor. In the room to the left there loud enough for his sister to hear. arose an awkward silence; in the room to the “Gregor,” his father now said from the room right, his sister began sobbing. to the left, “the Deputy Director has come and Why didn’t his sister join the others? She inquires as to why you did not leave with the had most likely just now arisen from bed and early morning train. We don’t know what we had not yet begun to get dressed. And why was should say to him. Furthermore, he wants to she crying? Because he did not stand up and let speak to you directly. So please open the door. the Deputy Director in; because he was in He will surely have the goodness to excuse danger of losing his position and because the the disorder of your room.” “Good morning, Director would then persecute his parents with Mr. Samsa,” the Deputy Director called out at the the old demands? Those were unnecessary same time in a friendly manner. “He is not well,” worries, for the time being. Gregor was still here his mother said to the Deputy Director, while his and did not in the least contemplate leaving his father still spoke at the door, “he is not well, family. At the moment he was lying on the believe me, sir. Why would Gregor otherwise carpet, and no one who was aware of his condi- miss a train? The boy has nothing in his head tion would seriously request that he let the

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Deputy Director in. Gregor could not possibly be completely recovered now, though. I’m climbing Home and Family dismissed just for this minor breach of polite- out of bed right now. Just one moment of ness; he could easily find a suitable excuse later. patience! I thought things were not quite back to And it seemed to Gregor far more reasonable to normal yet. But I’m already well again. How it leave him in peace now, instead of disturbing can suddenly come over a person! I was fine him with tears and entreaties. But it was the yesterday evening, my parents know that, or uncertainty of it all that distressed the others perhaps I should say that yesterday evening I and so excused their behavior. had a slight premonition of it. It must have been “Mr. Samsa,” the Deputy Director now called easy to see in me. Why didn’t I report it to the in a raised voice, “what’s the matter? You barri- office yesterday! But one always thinks that one cade yourself there in your room, answer merely can ride out illness without having to stay home. with yes and no, burden your parents with Sir! Spare my parents! There is no basis for all profound, unnecessary worries and — this only the reproaches you’ve made against me; no one mentioned incidentally — neglect your business said anything about them to me before now. responsibilities in an unheard-of way. I speak Perhaps you haven’t seen the latest orders that I here in the name of your parents and your sent in. In any case, I will be starting my trip on Director and earnestly request of you an imme- the eight o’clock train. These few hours of rest diate, clear explanation. I am amazed; I am have strengthened me. Don’t let me hold you up, amazed. I thought I knew you as a quiet, reason- though, sir; I’ll soon be in the office myself, and able person, and now you suddenly begin to please have the goodness to say so, and to send exhibit extraordinary capriciousness. The my greetings to the Director.” Director told me early this morning of a possible And while Gregor hurriedly blurted all this explanation for your dereliction — it related to out, hardly knowing what he said, he moved the cash account recently entrusted to you — but effortlessly closer to the chest, thanks to the prac- I actually almost gave him my word of honor tice he had had in bed, and attempted to raise that this explanation could not be accurate. himself against it to an upright position. He actu- Now, however, I see your incomprehensible ally wanted to open the door, actually wanted to stubbornness here, and I lose any desire to let them see him and to speak with the Deputy vouch for you in the least. And your position is Director. He was eager to know what they all not the most secure. I originally had the inten- would say to him when they finally saw him, after tion of saying all of this just between the two of so much urging. Would they be afraid? If so, us, but since you force me to waste my time here Gregor would be absolved of responsibility and needlessly, I don’t know why your parents could relax. If they took it all in stride, however, should not also hear it. Your performance then, too, he would have no cause for worry, and recently has been very unsatisfying. It is not the he really could be at the train station at eight, if time of the year, of course, to do extraordinary he hurried. At first he simply slid a few times business, we recognize that; but there is no down the side of the slippery chest; finally, time of year in which to do no business, however, he gave himself one last swing and Mr. Samsa — ther e cannot be.” stood upright. He ignored the pain in his lower “But, sir,” called out Gregor, beside himself, 20 body, despite the fact that it burned. Now he let forgetting everything else in his agitation, “I’ll himself fall against the back of a nearby chair and open up immediately, this instant. A mild held tight to its sides with his legs. This helped indisposition — an attack of dizziness — has kept him regain his self-control, and he stayed quiet, me from getting up. I’m still lying in bed. I’m so that he could hear the Deputy Director speak. 200

The Metamorphosis has been adapted many times, speech, but it sounded clear enough to him, as both play and opera. In this photograph from a The Metamorphosis stage production, the characters, including Gregor, clearer than previously, perhaps because his ear are all dressed in everyday clothing. Why do you had adjusted to it. But they did still believe that think this production does not represent something was wrong with him, and they were Gregor’s physical transformation? How do you prepared to help him. He was pleased by the think the viewer’s experience of Gregor’s confidence and certainty with which the first transformation is affected by the fact that the arrangements had been made. He felt drawn actor who plays him is still clearly human? once again into the circle of humanity and expected great things from both the doctor and the locksmith, without really making a distinc- tion between them. In order to develop the clearest possible voice for the decisive discus- sions to come, he coughed a bit, although he tried to do this in a muted fashion, because this, too, might sound very different from a human cough — he no longer trusted himself to judge. It had now fallen completely silent in the next room. His parents might have been sitting at the

GREG WOOD / AFP / Getty Images table, whispering with the Deputy Director, or perhaps they were all pressed against the door, listening. “Did you understand one word?” the Deputy Using the chair, Gregor slowly shoved Director asked his parents. “Surely he’s making himself forward, and then let go, throwing fun of us?” “For God’s sake,” cried his mother in himself against the door, and holding himself the midst of tears, “he might be seriously ill, and upright against it. The balls of his feet had some we’re all plaguing him. Grete! Grete!” she then sticky substance on them. He took a moment to screamed. “Mother?” called his sister from the recover from the exertion. Then he applied other side. They were communicating through himself to turning the key in the lock. Gregor’s room. “You must go fetch the doctor Unfortunately, it seemed as if he had no real this minute. Gregor is ill. Quickly, to the doctor. teeth — wha t then could he grip the key Did you hear Gregor speak just now?” “That was with? — but his jaws, on the other hand, were the voice of an animal,” said the Deputy Director, powerful. With their help he started to turn the noticeably quiet, by contrast with the screaming key. He paid no attention to the fact that he obvi- of his mother. “Anna! Anna!” called his father ously did some harm to himself in the process — a towards the kitchen, clapping his hands, “Get a brown discharge came out from his mouth, locksmith immediately!” And the two girls ran, flowing over the key and dripping on the floor. their skirts rustling, through the foy er — how had “Listen now,” said the Deputy Director in the his sister gotten dressed so quickly? — and flung next room, “he’s turning the key.” That encour- the apartment door open. There was no noise of aged Gregor greatly, but all of them should have the door slamming; they had probably left it cheered him on, his father and mother, too: open, as was usual in apartments where some “Come on, Gregor,” they should have called, great misfortune had occurred. “keep at it, keep working the lock!” And

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imagining that all his efforts were being watched could clearly see a section of the endless, gray- Home and Family with rapt attention, he recklessly bit down on the bl ack building — it was a hospital — that stood key with all his might. He danced around the across the street, its severe, uniform windows lock, following the key as it turned; holding breaking up its facade. The rain still fell, but only himself upright entirely with his mouth, he in large, singly visible and singly plummeting either pulled up on the key or forced it down drops. The table teemed with breakfast dishes; with the full weight of his body, as necessary. his father considered breakfast the most impor- The crisp click of the lock finally snapping back tant meal of the day, and he protracted it for elated him. Breathing a sigh of relief he said to hours reading various periodicals. On the wall himself, “I didn’t even need the locksmith,” and just opposite hung a photograph of Gregor from he laid his head on the door handle, in order to his military days, which showed him dressed open the door. as a lieutenant, with a carefree smile, his hand Because he had to open the door in this way, 25 on his dagger, his bearing and his uniform he was not yet visible even when it was opened commanding respect. The door to the foyer was wide. If he didn’t want to fall flat on his back just open, and because the door to the apartment before his entrance into the next room, he would was open as well, one could see the outer hall first have to slowly make his way around the and the top of the staircase leading downwards. open panel of the double door. He was still busy “Now,” said Gregor — and he was well aware with this difficult maneuver and had not yet had that he was the only one remaining calm — a moment to think of the others, when he heard “I will just get dressed, pack my samples up, and the Deputy Director force out a loud “Oh!” It be off. Will you all allow me to go? Deputy sounded like a gust of wind. Now he could also Director, you see that I’m not obstinate and that see the Deputy, who was nearest the door — he I want to work. Traveling is demanding, but pressed his hand to his open mouth and slowly I couldn’t live without it. Where do you intend shrank back, as if an invisible, irresistible force to go now, Deputy Director? To the office? Yes? drove him. His mother — who stood, despite the Will you report everything accurately? A person presence of the Deputy Director, with her hair might be unable to work for a time, but it is still loose, and sticking up in parts from her precisely then that one must consider his past night’s sleep — first looked at his father with her accomplishments and keep in mind that once hands clasped; then she walked two steps the hindrance is past, he will certainly work even towards Gregor and sank to the ground in the harder and more efficiently. I owe a great deal to midst of her billowing skirts, her face completely the Director — yo u know that only too well. On hidden, sunk upon her breast. His father balled the other hand, I have the care of my parents his fist with a fierce expression, as if he wanted and sister. I’m in a fix, but I’ll work my way out to knock Gregor back into his room; then he again. But please don’t make it more difficult for looked uncertainly around the living room, me than it already is. Take my part in the office! covered his eyes with his hands, and sobbed so I know the traveling salesmen aren’t popular. that his powerful chest shook. People think we earn a huge amount of money Gregor had not yet entered the outer room; and lead grand lives. People just don’t have any instead, he leaned from within against the door particular reason to think this prejudice through panel that was still fastened, so that only half of carefully. You, however, Deputy Director, you his body and his head, craned to one side in have a better perspective on how things work order to see them, were visible. It had become than most of the staff — I might say, confiden- much brighter outside in the meantime: one tially, a better perspective than even the Director 202

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 202 18/08/16 12:28 PM himself, who, in his capacity as owner, can easily when Gregor was still calmly lying on his back. Kafka be misled in his judgment about an employee. And the Deputy Director, that ladies’ man, You know very well that the traveling salesman, would surely have let her sway him: she would The Metamorphosis because he is away from the office the better have closed the apartment door and talked him part of the year, easily falls victim to gossip, to out of his fear in the foyer. But his sister was not chance misfortune, and groundless complaints. there, so Gregor would have to handle it himself. It’s impossible for him to defend himself against And without thinking about the fact that he had these complaints, as he ordinarily learns noth- no idea yet how well he could move, without ing of them; it’s only when he comes home at thinking that his speech was possibly — well, the end of a trip completely exhausted that he very probably — incomprehensible, he let go of feels the terrible consequences, whose origins the door panel, forcing himself through the he can’t divine, in his very body. Deputy opening, and headed for the Deputy Director, Director, don’t leave without saying one word who was already at the landing in the hall and that shows me that you agree with me at least hugging himself in a comical manner. With a in part!” small cry, scrambling in vain for something to But the Deputy Director had turned away at hold on to, Gregor immediately fell down onto Gregor’s first words, and was staring back at his many little legs. This had hardly happened, Gregor over one twitching shoulder, his mouth when for the first time that morning he felt a agape. During Gregor’s speech he had not stood sense of physical well-bein g. His little legs had still for a moment, but, never taking his eyes off solid ground beneath them; they obeyed him of Gregor, moved steadily but surreptitiously completely, as he noted to his delight. They even towards the door, as if there were some secret strove to carry him where he wanted to go. prohibition against leaving the room. He had Suddenly, he believed that the ultimate relief of already reached the foyer, and judging by the all his suffering was at hand. But at that moment, sudden movement with which he pulled his foot as he lay on the floor trembling with suppressed out of the room at his last step, one would have energy, close to his mother and directly opposite thought his sole was on fire. Once in the foyer, her, she sprang up — she who had seemed so he stretched his hand out towards the staircase lost in thought — with her arms outstretched, as if divine deliverance awaited him there. her fingers splayed, and cried out: “Help, for Gregor realized that the Deputy Director God’s sake, help!” She kept her head turned could under no circumstances be allowed to towards him, as if she wanted to be able to see leave this way, if his position at the company him better, but, following a contradictory were not to be endangered. His parents didn’t impulse, she ran heedlessly backwards, forget- understand this as well as he did. They had over ting that the table full of dishes lay behind her. the years persuaded themselves that he was She quickly sat down when she reached it, as if guaranteed permanent employment in the absent-mindedl y, seeming not to notice that next company, and besides, they had so much to to her the coffeepot had been knocked over and do in dealing with their own distress at the coffee was streaming freely out onto the carpet. moment, that their foresight had vanished. But “Mother, Mother,” Gregor said softly, and 30 Gregor had this foresight. The Deputy Director looked up at her. The Deputy Director vanished must be detained, calmed, persuaded, and from his mind momentarily, and he couldn’t finally won over — the future of Gregor and his stop himself from snapping his jaws at the family depended on it. If only his sister were empty air several times at the sight of the flowing here! She was clever: she was already crying coffee. His mother began screaming again over

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this, fled from the table, and fell into the arms of choice, as he noted with terror that he seemed Home and Family his father, who was hurrying towards her. But unable to keep going in the right direction when Gregor had no time then for his parents. The he moved backwards. He therefore began, with Deputy Director was already on the stairs. His frequent side-glances at his father, to turn chin on the railing, he looked back one last time. around as quickly as he could, which was actu- Gregor took a running start, in order to have the ally very slowly. His father might have under- best chance of catching up to him. The Deputy stood his good intentions, because he did not Director must have sensed something, as he disturb him while he was doing this; in fact, he sprang down several steps and then disap- actually directed him here and there from a peared. “Ahh!” he screamed; it echoed through- distance with the point of his stick. If only there out the entire stairwell. weren’t this unbearable hissing from his father! Unfortunately, the flight of the Deputy It unnerved Gregor completely. He was already Director seemed to have completely unhinged almost completely turned around when, listen- his father, who up until then had been relatively ing to his hissing, he made a mistake and turned self-controlled. Instead of running after the a bit in the wrong direction. When he was Deputy Director or at least not restraining finally, fortunately, headfirst at the opening of Gregor from pursuing him, with his right hand the door, it appeared that his body was too wide he grabbed the walking stick that the Deputy to go through without further ado. In his present Director had left behind on an armchair state of mind it was naturally far from occurring together with his hat and coat; with his left hand to his father to open the other door panel in he picked up a large newspaper from the table; order to make a wide enough passageway for then, stamping his feet, he began to drive Gregor Gregor. He was obsessed merely with getting back into his room by swatting at him with the Gregor into his room as quickly as possible. He stick and the newspaper. None of Gregor’s pleas would never have allowed the preparations helped — none of his pleas were understood. necessary for Gregor to raise himself up and The more submissively he bowed his head, the possibly go through the door that way. Instead, more vigorously his father stamped his feet. making a great deal of noise, he drove Gregor Across the room, despite the cool weather, his forward as if there were no obstacle before him. mother had thrown open a window and, leaning The noise coming from behind Gregor didn’t far out of the window, pressed her face into her sound any longer like the voice of his father. It hands. Between the street and the stairwell was clearly no laughing matter, so Gregor forced there arose a strong cross-draft: the window himself — happen what would — through the curtains flew up; the newspapers on the table door. One side of his body was hoisted upwards. rustled, and a few pages fluttered to the floor. He lay crookedly in the doorway. One of his His father drove him back mercilessly, spitting flanks was rubbed raw, and on the white door out hissing noises like a wild beast. Gregor, ugly smears remained behind. He was soon however, still was unpracticed in moving back- stuck fast, and couldn’t move at all anymore. His wards, so he went very slowly. If he had only little legs hung twitching on one side, and those been allowed time to turn around, he would on the other side were pressed painfully against have gone immediately back into his room, but the floor. Then his father liberated him with a he was afraid of making his father impatient. At powerful shove from behind, and he flew, bleed- every moment the stick in his father’s hand ing heavily, a long way into his room. The door threatened to deal him a fatal blow to his back or was slammed shut with the stick, and then it was head. Finally, however, Gregor found he had no finally quiet. 204

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 204 18/08/16 12:28 PM Kafka II there wasn’t a sound. Perhaps the reading, which his sister had frequently told him and t was already twilight when Gregor awoke wrote him about, had lately dropped out of their The Metamorphosis Ifrom a deep, dreamless sleep. He would not routine. It was completely quiet, though the have arisen much later even without having apartment was certainly not empty. “What a been disturbed, for he felt well rested and no quiet life the family leads,” Gregor said to longer sleepy, but it seemed to him that he had himself and felt great pride, as he stared into the been awakened by the sounds of a fleeting foot- darkness before him, that he had been able to step and of the door to the foyer carefully being provide his parents and his sister with such a shut. The glare from the electric street lamp life, in such a nice apartment. But what if terror outside lay palely here and there on the ceiling now drove away all quiet, all prosperity, all of his room and on the upper surfaces of the contentment? Rather than surrender to such furniture, but down by Gregor it was dark. He thoughts, Gregor preferred to move about, so shoved himself slowly towards the door, he crawled back and forth in the room. awkwardly groping with the feelers he had just Once during the long evening one of the side 35 then come to appreciate, in order to see what doors and later the other was opened a crack had happened there. His left side seemed to be a and then hastily shut again. Someone had prob- single, long, unpleasantly taut scar, and he had ably needed to come in, but had then thought to positively limp on his row of legs. One leg had better of it. Gregor now stopped directly in front been seriously injured during the events of the of the door to the living room, determined morning: it dragged limply behind him. somehow to get the hesitant visitor to come in, It was only when he was at the door that he or at least to find out who it was, but the doors realized what had actually lured him there: it were not opened again and Gregor waited in was the smell of something edible. Standing vain. Early on, when the doors were locked, there was a basin filled with fresh milk, swim- everyone had wanted to come in; now, when ming with small pieces of white bread. He could he had unlocked one door and the others had almost have laughed for joy, for he was even clearly been unlocked during the day, no hungrier than he had been that morning. He one came, and the keys had been moved to immediately dunked his head in the milk nearly the outside. up to his eyes. But he soon pulled back, disap- It was late at night before the light in the pointed. It wasn’t only that his tender left side living room was turned out, and it was now clear made it hard for him to eat — for it seemed he that his parents and sister had been awake until was able to eat only if his entire panting body then, for all three could clearly be heard depart- cooperated — it was rather that the milk, which ing on tiptoes. Now surely no one would come to had always been his favorite drink, and which see Gregor until morning; he therefore had quite his sister certainly placed here for that reason, a while in which to consider undisturbed how didn’t taste good to him at all. He turned away he should newly arrange his life. But he was from the basin with something like revulsion uneasy lying flat on the ground in the high- and crept back into the middle of the room. ceiling ed open room. He did not know why this The gas lamps had been turned on in the should be, for he had lived in the room for five living room, as Gregor saw through the crack in years already. Half unconsciously, and not with- the door. Whereas ordinarily at this hour his out some shame, he scurried under the sofa father would read the afternoon paper out loud where, despite the fact that his back was a bit to his mother and sometimes to his sister, now crushed and he could no longer lift his head, he

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immediately felt more comfortable, regretting however, what his sister in her goodness actually Home and Family only that his body was too broad to fit did. In order to test his preferences, she brought completely underneath. him an entire assortment of foods spread out on He remained there the entire night. He spent an old newspaper. There were old, half-rot ten part of it in a light sleep, out of which hunger vegetables; bones from last night’s meal, kept jolting him awake, and part of it awake, covered with congealed white sauce; a few consumed by worries and by vague hopes that raisins and almonds; a cheese that Gregor had all led to the same conclusion: that for the time declared inedible two days before; a piece of dry being he should keep calm and, by exercising bread, a piece of bread smeared with butter, and patience and the greatest consideration for his a piece with butter and salt. Beside this she family, try to make bearable the unpleasantness placed the basin that seemed now to be desig- that he would in his present condition inevitably nated permanently for Gregor, which she had cause them. filled with water. And out of tact, because she Early the next morning — it was nearly still knew Gregor would not eat in front of her, she night — Gregor had a chance to test the firmness departed hastily, even going so far as to turn the of his resolve, for his sister, already half-dressed, key in the lock, just so that Gregor would know opened the door leading from the foyer and that he could make himself as comfortable as he looked tensely inside. She couldn’t find him wanted. Gregor’s legs quivered, now that the right away, but when she noticed him under the meal lay waiting. His wounds must moreover sofa — God, he had to be someplace, he couldn’t have completely healed. He felt no impairment have just flown away — she was so shocked that now, and was astonished at this, thinking of how without being able to stop herself, she slammed he had cut himself very slightly with a knife the door shut again. But as if she regretted her more than a month ago, and how the wound behavior, she opened the door again immedi- had still hurt him considerably the day before ately, and came inside on tiptoe, as if she were in yesterday. “Am I less sensitive than before?” he the presence of someone severely ill, or even a wondered, and sucked greedily at the cheese, to complete stranger. Gregor shoved his head which he had found himself urgently drawn, forward just to the edge of the sofa and watched before everything else. In rapid succession, her. He wondered whether she would notice that amidst tears of joy, he devoured the cheese, the he had left the milk standing, though not from vegetables, and the sauce. He didn’t like the lack of hunger, and whether she would bring taste of the fresh foods, however — he couldn’t him some other food that suited him better. If even bear their smell, and dragged the foods she didn’t do it on her own, he would rather that he wanted to eat a bit farther away. He had starve than make her aware of it, although he felt long since finished everything and lay lazily in a strong urge to shoot out from beneath the sofa, the same spot when his sister slowly turned the throw himself at her feet, and beg her for some- key in the lock, as a sign that he should with- thing good to eat. But his sister, with some draw. That jolted him awake immediately, amazement, right away noticed the still full though he was almost dozing, and he hurried basin: only a bit of milk had been spilled around back under the sofa. But it took great self-contr ol its edges. She picked it up immediately, though for him to remain under the sofa even for the with a rag, not with her bare hands, and took it brief time that his sister was in the room, for his away. Gregor was extremely curious to see what body had swelled a bit with the ample meal, and she would bring as a replacement and thought a he could hardly breathe in the narrow space. great deal about it. He could never have guessed, Half-suffocating, he looked out with slightly 206

How does this work, by artist Alison The Metamorphosis Czinkota, characterize Gregor’s sister Grete as she offers him food? Alison Czinkota

bulging eyes as his sister, who noticed nothing, them completely was out of the question, of swept up with a broom not just the remainder of course — that Gregor sometimes seized on a the food Gregor had eaten, but also the food that remark that was meant in a friendly way or that he had not even touched, as if this were no could be taken that way. “Today he liked it,” she longer useable. She put it all in a container that said, if he had made a real dent in the meal, while she closed with a wooden lid, and then carried in the contrary case, which occurred ever more everything out. She had hardly turned around frequently of late, she used to say almost sadly: when Gregor pulled himself out from under the “Everything untouched again.” sofa and exhaled. Though Gregor could not learn any news In this way Gregor now received his daily directly, he overheard some from the rooms next meals: the first in the morning, while his parents door. The moment he heard voices, he immedi- and the servant girl still slept, and the second ately ran to the door and pressed his entire body after the common midday meal, for his parents up against it. Especially in the early days, there slept a bit afterwards, and his sister sent the was no conversation that did not somehow, if serving girl away on one errand or another. It only indirectly, relate to him. For two days there was not that the others wanted him to starve, but were consultations at every meal about what they experiencing his meals at secondhand might should do; between meals, too, they discussed have been all they could bear; or perhaps his the same thing. There were always at least two sister simply wanted to spare them even this family members at home, because no one wanted minor source of sorrow, since they were already to remain home alone, and they couldn’t under suffering enough. any circumstances all leave the apartment at the With what kinds of excuses they had managed 40 same time. On the very first day the girl who to get the doctor and the locksmith out of the cooked for them had begged his mother on apartment the first morning, Gregor didn’t bended knee — it wasn’t exactly clear what and manage to find out. Because no one could under- how much she knew of what had happened — to stand him, it didn’t occur to any one — not even to dismiss her. As she departed fifteen minutes later, his sis ter — tha t he could understand them, so he she tearfully thanked them for her dismissal, as if had to content himself, when his sister was in his for the greatest favor that had ever been done her, room, with listening to her occasional sighs and and swore a terrible oath, without anyone having appeals to the saints. It was only later, when she asked her to do so, not to betray the least of what had gotten used to things a bit — get ting used to she knew to anyone.

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Now his sister had to do the cooking, simply got used to it — the family, as well as Home and Family together with his mother. This didn’t take much Gregor. They gratefully accepted his money, and effort, however, because they ate practically he gladly offered it, but that special warmth did nothing. Gregor heard them again and again not reappear. Only his sister remained close to urge each other to eat and receive no other Gregor. Because she loved music very much, answer than “Thanks, I’ve had enough,” or unlike Gregor, and could play the violin movingly, something similar. It seemed they didn’t drink he secretly planned to send her to the conserva- anything, either. His sister often asked his father tory next year, despite the great cost, which would if he would like a beer, cheerfully offering to get have to be made up somehow. The conservatory it herself. When his father said nothing, she came up often in conversations with his sister offered to send the porter for it, in case he didn’t during Gregor’s brief stays in the city, but only as want to trouble her. When his father finally a beautiful dream whose realization was unthink- uttered a firm “No,” the subject was dropped. able. His parents didn’t even like to hear them In the course of the first few days his father utter those innocent musings. But Gregor had explained their entire financial situation and their given it a good deal of thought and intended to prospects to his mother and to his sister. Now and announce his decision with due ceremony on then he stood up from the table and took various Christmas Eve. documents and notebooks out of the small safe These thoughts, completely futile in his pres- that he had rescued from the bankruptcy of his ent situation, went through his head while he business five years before. He could be heard clung to the door and listened. Sometimes, from opening the complicated lock and closing it again sheer exhaustion, he could listen no more and after removing what he sought. His father’s expla- would let his head fall against the door, but then nations contained the first heartening news that immediately catch himself, for even the faint noise Gregor had heard since his imprisonment. He that he made in doing so was heard next door and had been under the impression that his father caused them all to fall silent. “What’s he doing had absolutely nothing left over from his busi- now?” said his father after a pause, obviously ness. As least, he had said nothing to the contrary, turned towards the door. Only then was the inter- and Gregor had certainly never asked him about rupted conversation gradually taken up again. it. Gregor’s concern at the time of the bankruptcy Gregor now learned — for his father tended 45 had been to arrange everything so that the family to repeat himself often in his explanations, could forget as soon as possible the financial partly because he had not concerned himself misfortune that had brought them to a state of with these matters for a long while, and partly, complete despair. And so he had begun to work too, because his mother didn’t immediately with pronounced fervor. Practically overnight he understand everything the first time — tha t was elevated from a minor clerk into a traveling despite all their misfortunes, a certain sum, salesman, which naturally gave him completely though a very small one, was left over from the different financial prospects. His successes at old days. The untouched interest on the sum work translated directly into cash that he could had moreover in the meantime allowed it to lay on the table at home before his astonished grow a bit. Besides this, the money that Gregor and pleased family. Those had been fine times, had brought home every month — he had only but they had never recurred, at least not with the kept a few florins for himself — had not been same warm feelings, although Gregor later completely exhausted and had accumulated earned so much money that he was in a position into a small amount of capital. Gregor, behind to support the entire family, and he did so. They the door, nodded eagerly, overjoyed at this 208

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 208 18/08/16 12:28 PM unexpected foresight and thriftiness. It occurred a short distance away less and less clearly. He Kafka to him that he might have used that extra money could no longer see the hospital that lay across to further pay down the debt his father owed the the way, whose all too massive prospect he had The Metamorphosis Director, bringing closer the day that he could earlier cursed. If he had not known very well quit his job, but the way his father had arranged that he lived in the quiet, but distinctly urban things was no doubt better. Charlotte Street, he could have believed that he The sum that had been saved was not, looked out of his window into a desert in which however, large enough to allow his family to live the gray sky and the gray earth merged indistin- off of the interest. It would have been enough to guishably. His alert sister only had to see the support them for a year, or at most two years, but armchair standing by the window twice before no longer. The sum really shouldn’t be touched: she began to shove the chair precisely back to it should be set aside for emergencies. To live, the spot by the window after she straightened up money would have to be earned. His father was the room. She even left the inner casement open a healthy but old man, who had not worked now from then on. for five years and couldn’t in any case take on If Gregor had been able to speak to his sister too much. During these five years, which had and thank her for everything she had to do for been the first free time of his hardworking but him, he would have been able to bear her assis- unsuccessful life, he had put on a great deal of tance more easily; as it was, however, it caused weight and had become downright sluggish. But him some pain. His sister tried to hide the was his elderly mother supposed to earn money awkwardness of the whole thing as much as now — his mother, who suffered from asthma, possible, and the longer it went on, the better for whom even a stroll through the apartment she succeeded, but Gregor felt everything more was considerable exertion, and who spent every acutely as time went on. Even her entrance was other day on the sofa by the open window, gasp- terrible for him. She had hardly entered, when, ing for breath? Or his sister, who at seventeen without even taking the time to shut the doors, was still a child, and whose lifestyle up to that though she otherwise took such pains to spare point had consisted of dressing herself neatly, everyone the sight of Gregor’s room, she ran to sleeping late, helping out in the household, the window and hastily flung it open, as if she taking part in a few modest pleasures, and above were suffocating. Then she remained for a time all playing the violin? Whenever the conversa- by the window, cold as it still was, and breathed tion turned towards the necessity of earning deeply. With this running and commotion she money, Gregor left the door and threw himself alarmed Gregor twice daily. He trembled under on the leather sofa that stood nearby, for he the sofa the entire time and yet he knew very burned with shame and sorrow. well that she would gladly have spared him, if Often he lay there the long night through, only it had been possible to stay in a room where though he was unable to sleep for a moment and Gregor was with the windows closed. just scratched for hours at the leather. Or he Once — one month had already passed since would go to great pains to shove an armchair to Gregor’s transformation, and there was no the window, then crawl up to the windowsill longer any reason for his sister to be astonished and, bolstered by the armchair, lean against the by his appearance — she came a bit earlier than window. He did so only in some kind of nostal- usual and encountered Gregor as he was staring gia for the feeling of freedom he had previously out the window, motionless and perfectly posi- found in looking out the window, for the fact tioned to frighten someone. Gregor would not was that every day he saw things that were even have been surprised if she had not come in,

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since his position hindered her from immedi- Later, however, she had to be restrained with Home and Family ately opening the window, but she not only force. When she cried out, “Let me in to see refrained from coming in, she actually turned Gregor; he’s my poor son! Don’t you understand around and locked the door. A stranger would that I must go to him?” Gregor thought that it have thought that Gregor had lain in wait for her might be good if his mother did come in — not and tried to bite her. Gregor naturally hid every day, of course, but perhaps once a week. himself immediately under the sofa, but he had After all, she knew how to do things much better to wait until midday for her return, and she than his sister, who, despite her courage, was seemed then more agitated than usual. He real- still only a child, and who likely took on such a ized from this that his appearance was still heavy burden only out of childish unbearable to her and that it would remain thoughtlessness. so — that she had to steel herself to keep from Gregor’s wish to see his mother was soon running at the sight of even the small portion of fulfilled. During the day, for his parents’ sake, his body that jutted out from beneath the sofa. Gregor did not want to show himself at the In order to spare her the sight, one day he window, but he did not have much room to dragged a sheet onto the sofa — it took him four crawl in the few square meters of floor space. hours to do so — and arranged it in such a way It was hard enough for him to bear lying quietly that he was completely covered. His sister could during the night, and eating soon gave him not not have seen him even if she bent down. If the the least bit of pleasure, so in order to distract sheet had not been necessary, in her opinion, himself, he had adopted the habit of crawling she could have removed it, for it obviously across the walls and ceiling. He especially liked couldn’t be pleasant for Gregor to block himself hanging upside down from the ceiling. It was off so completely. But she left the sheet where it completely different from lying on the floor: he was, and Gregor thought he even noticed a could breathe more freely; his entire body grateful glance when he once carefully lifted the swayed gently; and in the nearly happy distrac- sheet with his head in order to see how his sister tion in which he found himself above, it some- liked the new arrangement. times happened that he unexpectedly let himself In the first two weeks his parents could 50 fall and crashed to the ground. But these days he not bring themselves to come in to see him, had better control of his body, so he did not hurt and he often heard them praise his sister’s himself even in a great fall. His sister immedi- current industry, whereas they had previously ately noticed the new amusement that Gregor complained a great deal about her, as she had had found for himself — he left a trace of then seemed to them a rather idle girl. In those stickiness behind him here and there while early days, both his father and his mother often crawling — and so she got it in her head to allow waited in front of Gregor’s room while his sister him to crawl to his utmost by removing the straightened up, and as soon as she came out, furniture that hindered it, especially the chest of she had to tell them precisely what it looked like drawers and desk. She was not capable of doing in the room, what Gregor had eaten, how he had this herself, however. She didn’t dare ask her behaved, and whether there were perhaps any father for help. The servant girl would certainly slight improvement in his condition. His mother not help her: this roughly sixteen-ye ar-old girl also wanted to visit Gregor early on, but his had stuck it out quite bravely since the dismissal father and sister dissuaded her with sound of the former cook, but she had asked for the reasons to which Gregor listened very atten- privilege of keeping the kitchen door always tively, and which he completely supported. locked and only having to open it when 210

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 210 18/08/16 12:28 PM Kafka specifically asked. So his sister had no choice in exactly the same condition it was in before, so but to enlist her mother one time when her that when Gregor returns to us, he’ll find every- father was absent. With cries of great joy his thing unchanged, and so more easily forget The Metamorphosis mother approached, but fell silent at the door of what’s happened in the meantime.” Gregor’s room. His sister checked first, of course, In listening to his mother’s words, Gregor to see that the room was in order; only then did realized that the lack of any direct human she let her mother enter. In great haste, Gregor communication over the course of the past two pulled the sheet lower and gathered more mate- months, together with the monotonous life he rial around him. It looked like a sheet had led in the midst of the family, must have merely been carelessly thrown over the sofa. deranged his mind; otherwise he couldn’t Gregor also refrained from spying out from explain why he had earnestly desired that his under the sheet. He deprived himself of the sight room be emptied. Did he really want to let them of his mother and took his pleasure entirely from transform the warm room, comfortably outfitted the fact that she had come. “Come on, you can’t with inherited furnishings, into a cave? Granted, see him,” said his sister, and she apparently led he would be able to crawl undisturbed in all her mother in by the hand. Gregor then heard directions, but he would at the same time forget, the two frail women shove the heavy old chest of quickly and completely, his human past. He was drawers from its place. His sister reserved the already close to forgetting it, but his mother’s greatest part of the labor for herself, ignoring the voice, so long unheard, had roused him. Nothing warnings of her mother, who feared that she should be removed; everything had to stay. He would overexert herself. It took a very long time. could not afford to lose the good influence the After fifteen minutes of work, his mother said furniture had on his condition. If the furniture that they should just leave the chest where it hindered him from carrying on his mindless was, first, because it was too heavy — they crawling about, that was no drawback, it was wouldn’t be finished before his father returned, rather a great advantage. and so would end up leaving the chest in the middle of the room, where it would block Gregor at every turn — and second, because it was not at all certain that they were doing Gregor a favor by removing the furniture. It seemed to her / rather the opposite: the sight of the empty wall oppressed her heart. Why should Gregor not feel the same way? He had been used to the room’s furniture for so long, that he would surely feel lost in an empty room. “And isn’t it so,” concluded his mother very softly — almost whispering, as if she wanted to keep Gregor, of whose precise whereabouts she wasn’t certain, from

hearing even the sound of her voice, for she was Collection John Klossner The New Yorker The Cartoon Bank convinced that he could not understand the words — “isn’t it so, that by removing the furni- How does the cartoonist suggest that The ture we seem to be saying that we give up all Metamorphosis has become part of our hope of his recovery, and abandon him abso- popular culture — perhaps even for those who lutely? I think it would be best if we left the room haven’t read the novella?

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But his sister was unfortunately of a different That was enough to put his mother on the alert. Home and Family opinion. She had become accustomed, not She froze, stood still a moment, and then completely without justification, to playing the returned to Grete. expert when it came to discussing anything that Though Gregor kept telling himself that 55 concerned Gregor with her parents. And so her nothing extraordinary was happening — a few mother’s advice now led her to insist on the pieces of furniture were merely being moved removal not only of the chest and the desk, around — he soon realized that this continual which was all she had first intended, but of all of back and forth on the part of the women, their the furniture, with the exception of the indis- soft calls to one another, and the scraping of the pensable sofa. Of course, it was not just childish furniture on the floor affected him like the great- stubbornness and the hard-won self-confidence est of commotions closing in on him from all she had recently and unexpectedly acquired that sides. However closely he drew in his head and determined her on this course: she had actually legs and however firmly he pressed his body to observed that Gregor needed a great deal of the floor, he realized he couldn’t stand it much room to crawl around in, and that he did not use longer. They were emptying out his room; they the furniture at all, as far as she could see. It were taking from him everything that he held might also have been the romantic nature of dear. They had carried out the chest which held girls of her age, which sought some outlet at his fret saw and other tools; they were already every opportunity, and made her want Gregor’s working free the desk from the grooves it had situation to be even more terrifying, so that she worn into the floor — the desk at which he had could do even more than before to help him. For written his exercises as a student at trade school, in a space in which Gregor, completely alone, at secondary school, and even at primary ruled the empty walls, no person but Grete school. At this point he did not have the patience would dare to enter. to contemplate the women’s good intentions, And so she did not allow herself to be the existence of which he had at any rate almost swayed by her mother, who faltered from sheer forgotten. Exhausted, they worked now in uneasiness at being in the room, soon fell silent, complete silence, and only the heavy tread of and finally helped his sister as much as she was their feet could be heard. able in shoving the chest out of the room. Gregor And so he burst forth from under the could spare the chest if he must, but the desk sofa — the women were just leaning against the had to stay. The women had hardly left the room desk in the next room, in order to catch their with the chest, pushing at it and gasping for air, breath — though he changed the direction of his when Gregor stuck his head out from under the charge four times, for he really did not know what sofa, in order to see where he could intervene, as to save first. On one otherwise empty wall he carefully and as considerately as possible. But distinctly saw the picture of the woman dressed unfortunately it was his mother who returned entirely in furs. He crept hurriedly up to it and first, while Grete in the next room gripped the pressed himself against the glass, which held him chest and rocked it back and forth alone, with- fast and soothed his hot belly. At least no one out, naturally, being able to move it from its could take away this picture, which Gregor now spot. His mother was not, however, used to the completely covered with his body. He turned his sight of Gregor — he might have made her head towards the door of the living room in order sick — so Gregor, alarmed, rushed back to the to observe the women on their return. opposite end of the sofa. He could not, however, They weren’t allowing themselves much rest prevent the sheet from moving a bit at the front. and so came back directly. Grete had put her 212

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 212 18/08/16 12:28 PM arm around her mother and seemed practically couldn’t open the door, if he did not want to Kafka to carry her. “Well, what should we take now?” chase away his sister, who had to remain with said Grete and looked around. Then her glance his mother. He had nothing left to do but wait. The Metamorphosis met Gregor’s as he clung to the wall. She main- Oppressed by self-reproaches and worry, he tained her composure — surely only due to began to crawl. He crawled over everything — her mother’s presence — ben t her face to her walls, furniture, and ceiling — and finally, mother, in order to keep her from looking in his despair, he fell, the entire room around, and said hastily, a tremor in her voice, spinning around him, onto the center of the “Come, let’s go back in the living room for a large table. moment.” Grete’s intention was clear to Gregor: A short time passed, and Gregor lay limply she wanted to bring her mother to safety and there. All around was quiet. Perhaps that was a then chase him down off of the wall. Well, good sign. Then the bell rang. The servant girl she could try! He would sit on the picture was naturally locked into her kitchen, and so and not give it up. He would rather spring in Grete had to go open the door. His father had Grete’s face. returned. “What happened?” were his first But Grete’s words had for the first time words. The look on Grete’s face betrayed every- really unsettled his mother. She moved to the thing to him. Grete answered with a muffled side, spotted the giant brown fleck on the flow- voice — she was obviously pressing her face ered wallpaper, and cried out in a screeching, against her father’s chest. “Mother fainted, but raw voice, before she was really fully conscious she’s already better. Gregor broke out.” “I was that it was Gregor that she saw, “Oh my God; oh waiting for this,” said his father, “I always said it my God!” She then fell onto the sofa with wide- would happen, but you women didn’t want to spread arms, as if she were altogether giving up, hear it.” It was clear to Gregor that his father had and didn’t move. “Gregor, you — !” cried his interpreted Grete’s all-too-brief announcement sister with a raised fist and piercing gaze. They in the worst possible way, and assumed that were the first words she had directly addressed Gregor had been guilty of some act of violence. to Gregor since his transformation. She ran into Therefore Gregor had to try to mollify his father, the next room in order to get some scent with for he had neither the time nor the ability to which she could wake her mother out of her enlighten him. And so he fled to the door of his faint. Gregor wanted to help, too — there was room and pressed against it, so that his father still time to save the picture — but he was stuck could see immediately on leaving the hallway to the glass and had to tear himself free. He, too, that Gregor had every intention of returning ran into the next room, as if he could give his right away to his room. It would not be neces- sister some advice, as in earlier days, but then sary to drive him back, just to open the door, and he had to stand helplessly behind her while she he would disappear instantly. rummaged through various bottles. She was But his father was not in the mood to notice 60 startled when she turned around; a bottle fell to such subtleties: “Ah!” he cried out on entering, the floor and broke. A sliver of glass cut Gregor’s in a tone that made him seem at once furious face, and some burning medicine spilled over and glad. Gregor drew his head back from the him. Grete took as many bottles as she could door and turned it toward his father. His father’s carry and ran with them in to her mother. She appearance was different from the way he then slammed the door shut with her foot. remembered it. Lately, due to his new habit of Gregor was now shut off from his mother, who crawling about, Gregor had concerned himself was through his fault possibly near death. He less with the goings-on in the rest of the

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apartment; he should therefore really have been slow tempo that it didn’t even look like a pursuit. Home and Family prepared to encounter new developments. But For the time being, Gregor stayed on the floor. still, still, was this really his father? The same He was afraid that his father might consider man who lay, tired out, buried deep in his bed, flight toward the walls or the ceiling as particular when Gregor was all set to go on a business trip? wickedness. But Gregor realized that he couldn’t The man who, dressed in a nightshirt, had keep up even this pace for long, for when his greeted him when he returned in the evenings father took a single step, he had to carry out from an easy chair, and, unable to stand up, only myriad movements. He soon felt short of breath; raised his arms to show his joy at his return? The his lungs had not been reliable even in the old man who, on the rare walks he took together days. As he staggered forward, he could barely with Gregor and his mother on a few Sundays keep his eyes open, so hard did he try to concen- and the most important holidays of the year, trate his energy for running. In his dullness he walked packed into his old coat even more was simply unable to think of any other means slowly than they did, though they walked slowly of deliverance. He had almost forgotten already enough, laboring forward with a deliberately that the walls were open to him, though they placed cane, and who nearly always stopped were obstructed here by painstakingly carved when he wanted to say something, gathering his furniture full of points and sharp edges. companions around him? Now, he was quite Suddenly something lightly thrown flew just past well put together. He was dressed in the kind of him and rolled ahead. It was an apple. Another close-fitting blue uniform with gold buttons that immediately followed. Gregor froze in fear. doormen at the banking houses wore; over the Running further was pointless, for his father had high stiff collar of the coat his pronounced decided to bombard him. He had filled his pock- double chin protruded; under his bushy ets from the fruit bowl on the credenza and now eyebrows the glance of his dark eyes sprang threw apple after apple, without for the time forth fresh and alert; the formerly disheveled being aiming very carefully. These small red white hair was combed flat into a painfully exact, apples rolled around on the ground, knocking shining part. He threw his hat, which bore a gold into each other as if charged with electricity. A mono gram — pr obably that of a b ank — in an arc weakly thrown apple strafed Gregor’s back, but across the room and onto the sofa. He moved glanced off without doing any harm. One that towards Gregor, the ends of his long coat pushed flew immediately in its wake actually embedded back, his hands in his pants pockets, his face itself in his back, however. Gregor tried to drag grim. He probably did not know himself what he himself forward, as if he could outrun the planned to do. In any case he lifted his feet unbelievable pain by changing position, but he unusually high, and Gregor was astonished at felt as if he were nailed to the spot and lay the gigantic size of the soles of his boots. But he sprawled upon the ground, in complete distrac- didn’t let his astonishment distract him. He had tion of all of his senses. With his last conscious known from the first day of his new life that his glance he watched as the door to his room was father considered the greatest severity appropri- ripped open and, ahead of his screaming sister, ate in dealing with him. And so he ran away his mother ran out of the room in her slip — for from his father. He froze when his father stood his sister had undressed her to let her breathe still and hurried forward again when his father freely while in her faint — and raced towards his moved a muscle. In this way they circled the father, her untied skirts slipping down to the room several times, without anything decisive floor one after another; he watched as, stum- happening; the whole thing moved at such a bling on the skirts, she embraced his father, 214

How might this painting by Francis Bacon, a nently lost some mobility through his injury, twentieth-century artist, be interpreted as The Metamorphosis “Kafkaesque”? Note construction, line, and and now, like an invalid, took many, many color as well as the central image. minutes to cross his room — cra wling on high was out of the question — this degeneration in his condition brought with it a compensation that was to his mind completely satisfactory. Toward evening they now opened the living room door so that, lying in the darkness of his room and invisible from the living room, he could watch the entire family at the lighted table and listen to their conversation by general consent, as it were — a complete change from the early days when he used to watch the door like a hawk an hour or two before they gathered. Of course, the conversations were not as lively as in earlier days. Gregor used to recall them longingly in the small hotel rooms where he had had to throw himself, exhausted, into the damp bedclothes. These days everything was mostly very quiet. His father fell asleep in his armchair soon after the evening meal; his

Francis Bacon Head VI, 1949 / Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, mother and sister urged one another to silence. London, UK / Bridgeman Images His mother now sewed fine lingerie for a Artwork: © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. / DACS, London / ARS, NY 2016. Image: Bridgeman Images. boutique, bending close to her work under the light. His sister, who had taken a job as a sales- clerk, studied stenography and French at night, fully at one with him — but Gregor’s vision now in order to find a better position one day. failed him utterly — and, with her hands clasped Sometimes his father awoke and, as if he didn’t around the back of his head, begged him to realize that he had been sleeping, would say to spare Gregor’s life. his mother: “How long you’re sewing again today!” Then he would fall asleep again immediately, while his mother and sister exchanged III tired smiles. he deep injury from which Gregor had With a kind of stubbornness his father Tsuffered for over a month — the apple refused to take off his work uniform when he remained embedded in his flesh as a visible returned home, and while his nightshirt hung, memento, as no one dared to remove it — se emed useless, on a clothes hook, he dozed at his place to have reminded even his father that despite his fully clothed, as if he were always on duty and present sad and repulsive state, Gregor was a awaited the call of his superiors. As a result, the member of the family who should not be treated uniform, which hadn’t been new in the first as an enemy. The law of familial obligation place, became less than pristine, despite the dictated, rather, that one had to swallow one’s care his mother and sister took with it. Gregor

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often spent whole evenings looking at the badly family jewelry, which his mother and sister had Home and Family stained coat, its oft-polished gold buttons shin- previously worn with pleasure at parties and ing, in which the old man slept highly uncom- celebrations, were sold, as Gregor learned one fortably, but quietly. evening from a general conversation about the As soon as the clock struck ten, his mother 65 prices obtained. Their greatest source of tried to wake his father by speaking softly to him, complaint, however, was that the apartment, far and tried to persuade him to go to bed, for he too large for them under the circumstances, couldn’t sleep well there, and a good sleep was could not be left, because it was unthinkable absolutely essential, since he had to be at work that Gregor be relocated. But Gregor realized by six. But in the stubbornness that had come that it was not consideration for him that over him since he became a bank employee, he hindered a relocation, for they could have trans- always insisted on remaining longer where he ported him easily in a suitable carton with a few was, although he regularly fell asleep again, and air holes. What really kept the family from required much effort to persuade in exchanging changing apartments was despair, and the the armchair for his bed. His mother and sister thought that they had been afflicted by misfor- could press him with gentle remonstrances as tune such as had struck no one in their circle of much as they liked — for a quarter of an hour at relatives and acquaintances. They did every- a time he slowly shook his head, his eyes closed, thing that the world demanded of poor and refused to stand up. His mother plucked at people — his father fetched breakfast for the his sleeve, and whispered endearments in his junior bank clerks; his mother dedicated herself ear; his sister left her work in order to help her to making underwear for strangers; his sister ran mother, but got nowhere with him. He only sank back and forth behind the counter at the beck deeper into his armchair. Only when the women and call of customers — but they could do no grasped him under the arms would he open his more than that. And the wound in his back eyes, look in turn at Gregor’s mother and sister, began to hurt Gregor anew when his mother and and say, “What a life. This is the peace and quiet sister would return from putting his father to of my old age.” And bracing himself against the bed, let their work lie, and huddle close together, women, he hoisted himself up laboriously, as if cheek to cheek. His mother, gesturing towards he were his own greatest burden, and allowed Gregor’s room, said, “Close the door, Grete,” and himself to be led to the door. He waved them off Gregor was in the dark again, while next door then and went on under his own power, but the women mingled tears or stared, dry-eyed Gregor’s mother would hastily throw down her and numb, down at the table. sewing and his sister her quill in order to run Gregor passed the days and nights nearly after him and be of further help to him. without sleep. Sometimes he considered taking Who in this overworked and overtired family the affairs of the family in hand again, the next had time to worry about Gregor more than was time the door was opened. After some time, he absolutely necessary? The household was ever thought again about the Director and the more reduced in circumstances. The servant girl Deputy Director, the clerks and the apprentices, had been dismissed, and a gigantic, bony the slow-witted porter, two or three friends from servant with white hair that fluttered about her other companies, a chambermaid from a hotel head came in the mornings and the evenings to in the pr ovinces — a dear, fleeting memor y — and do the hardest labor. Everything else his mother a cashier from a hat store whom he had courted took care of, in addition to her abundant sewing seriously, though too slowly. They reappeared in work. It even came to pass that various pieces of his thoughts together with strangers or people 216

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 216 18/08/16 12:28 PM he had already forgotten, but instead of helping watched, helpless with astonishment. Then Kafka him and his family, they all remained detached, they, too, were affected: on one side, his father and he was glad when they disappeared. At reproached his mother for not leaving the clean- The Metamorphosis other times, however, he was not in the mood to ing of Gregor’s room to his sister; on the other worry about his family. He was filled with rage at side, he shouted at his sister that she would the poor care they took of him, and though he never be allowed to clean Gregor’s room again. could think of nothing for which he had an In the meantime, his mother tried to drag his appetite, he made plans to reach the pantry and father, who was beside himself with agitation, take what was due him, even if he were not into the bedroom; his sister, racked by sobs, hungry. Without considering any longer what hammered the table with her small fists; and might especially please Gregor, mornings and Gregor hissed loudly with fury that no one afternoons before returning to the store his sister thought to close the door and so spare him the hurriedly shoved any old kind of food into his scene and the noise. room with her foot, only in order to sweep it out But even if his sister, exhausted from her with a whisk of the broom in the evenings, indif- work, could no longer manage to care for Gregor ferent as to whether it might have been merely as she had earlier, his mother would still not tasted or — as was usually the case — it remained have had to intervene in order to keep Gregor completely untouched. Her cleaning of the from being neglected. For there was still the room, which she now always did in the evening, servant. This old widow, who had weathered the could not have been done any more hastily. worst in her long life with the help of a powerful Smears of dirt ran along the walls, and here and frame, felt no especial revulsion towards Gregor. there lay balls of dust and filth. In the early days Without exactly being curious, she had once by Gregor used to position himself upon the arrival chance opened the door to Gregor’s room and of his sister in a particularly grubby corner, in stood staring at the sight of him, her hands order to reproach her. But he could have folded across her chest. Gregor was completely remained there for weeks, and his sister would taken by surprise, and despite the fact that no still not have changed her ways. She saw the dirt one was chasing him, he began to run back and as well as he did, but she had simply decided to forth. Since that time, she hadn’t missed a leave it there. At the same time, with a touchi- chance to open the door quickly in the morning ness entirely new to her that had now possessed and the evening to look in at Gregor. At first she the entire family, she was vigilant in making sure called him over to her with words that she prob- that the straightening of Gregor’s room was left ably considered friendly, like “Come on over to her. His mother once undertook a thorough here, you old dung beetle!” or “Look at the old cleaning of Gregor’s room, which had required dung beetle!” Gregor did not respond to such several buckets of water — the moisture both- overtures, but remained motionless in his place, ered Gregor, and he lay broad, embittered, and as if the door had not even been opened. If only unmoving on top of the sofa — but his mother they would order this servant to clean his room did not go unpunished. That evening his sister daily, instead of letting her needlessly disturb had hardly registered the change in Gregor’s him at will! Once in the early morning — a hard room when, highly insulted, she ran into the rain, perhaps already a sign of the coming living room, and despite her mother’s beseech- spring, beat on the windowpanes — Gregor ingly raised hands, broke into a spasm of tears became so embittered when the servant began that his parents — his father had naturally been to speak that he turned towards her, as if to frightened out of his seat — at first simply attack, though slowly and feebly. Instead of

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being afraid, however, the servant simply lifted up — first because he had no other place to Home and Family high into the air a chair that stood in reach of the crawl, and later with growing pleasure, although door. As she stood there with her mouth opened after such forays, tired to death and full of wide, it was clear that she intended to shut her sorrow, he could not stir for hours. mouth only after the chair in her hands had Because the lodgers sometimes took their 70 come down on Gregor’s back. “That’s it, then?” evening meal in the common living room, the she asked, as Gregor turned around again, and living room door remained closed on some she put the chair quietly back in its corner. evenings. Gregor managed without it very well. Gregor now ate almost nothing. When he On some evenings when it was open he did not happened to pass by the food prepared for him, even take advantage of it, but without the he sometimes idly took a bite and held it in his family’s knowing it, lay in the darkest corner of mouth for an hour or so, only to spit most of it his room. Once, however, the servant left the out again. At first he thought that his sorrow over door to his room open a bit, and it remained the state of his room kept him from eating, but open, even as the lodgers came in that evening he had actually reconciled himself very soon to and the light was turned on. They sat at the head the changes. The family had gotten into the of the table, where in former days his father, habit of putting into his room things that mother, and Gregor had eaten, unfolded their wouldn’t fit anywhere else: there were now napkins, and took their knives and forks in hand. many such things, as they had rented one room His mother immediately appeared in the door- in the apartment out to three lodgers. These way with a dish of meat and his sister directly three serious gentlemen — all three had full behind her with a dish piled high with potatoes. beards, as Gregor discovered once by looking The steaming food gave off a rich smell. The through the crack in the door — wer e painfully lodgers bent over the dishes placed before them focused on order, not only in their room, but, as if they wanted to check them before eating, simply because they had taken lodgings there, in and the one in the middle, whom the other two the entire household, especially in the kitchen. appeared to consider an authority, actually cut They would not put up with useless or dirty off a piece of meat still in the serving dish, obvi- things. And in any case, they had brought with ously to test whether it were tender enough, or them most of their own furnishings. For this whether it might perhaps need to be sent back to reason, many things that were not saleable, but the kitchen. He was satisfied, and mother and that the family did not want to throw away, had sister, who had watched the proceedings tensely, become superfluous. All of this made its way breathed again and smiled. into Gregor’s room — ev en, eventually, the ash The family themselves ate in the kitchen. bin and the rubbish bin from the kitchen. The Nevertheless, his father, before he went into the servant, who was always in a rush, simply slung kitchen, came into the room and made a single anything that was at the moment unuseable into long bow while circling the table, cap in hand. Gregor’s room. Fortunately Gregor usually saw The lodgers all rose together and murmured only the relevant object and the hand that held something into their beards. When they were it. The servant might once have intended to take alone again, they ate in near total silence. It the things out again when time and opportunity seemed strange to Gregor that, among all the permitted, or perhaps to throw them all out various sounds of eating, he could pick out the together once and for all, but in practice they lay sound of their chewing teeth — it was as if Gregor wherever they were tossed, unless Gregor were thereby reminded that one needed teeth in wound his way through the clutter and stirred it order to eat, and that one could do nothing with 218

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 218 18/08/16 12:28 PM even the most beautiful toothless jaws. “I do have source of pride. And just now he had more Kafka an appetite,” said Gregor sorrowfully to himself, reason than before to hide himself. Because of “but not for these things. How these lodgers feed the dust everywhere in his room that flew up at The Metamorphosis themselves, while I’m dying of hunger!” the least movement, he was himself covered in On this very evening, though Gregor did dust. Threads, hairs, and bits of leftover food not remember having heard it once before stuck to his back and sides. His general apathy during that whole time, the violin sounded was much too great for him now to lie on his from the kitchen. The lodgers had already back and scrub himself on the carpet, as he used finished their meal. The middle one had pulled to do several times a day. Despite his condition, out a newspaper and given each of the others however, he had no qualms about advancing a one page. They now read, leaning back, and bit onto the immaculate living room floor. smoked. As the violin began to play, they But no one paid any attention to him. His became alert, arose and went on tiptoes to the family was entirely absorbed in the playing of hall door, where they stood pressed up against the violin. The lodgers, on the other hand, who one another. They must have heard them in the had at first, their hands in their pants pockets, kitchen, for his father called out: “Do you taken up positions inconveniently close to his gentlemen perhaps dislike the playing? It can sister’s music stand, in order to see all the notes, be stopped immediately.” “On the contrary,” soon withdrew to the window, their heads said the lodger in the middle, “wouldn’t the bowed amidst whispered conversation, and young lady like to come out and play here in remained there with Gregor’s father worriedly this room, where it’s much more comfortable observing them. It was now painfully obvious and convenient?” “Oh, please!” called his that they were disappointed in what they had father, as if he were the violin player. The lodg- assumed would be a beautiful or entertaining ers moved back into the room and waited. His performance, and that they were sick of the father soon came in with the music stand, his entire production and now allowed their quiet to mother with the music, and his sister with the be disturbed only out of politeness. The way violin. His sister quietly prepared to play. His they all blew their cigar smoke out of their parents, who had never rented a room out mouths and noses indicated great irritation. But before and so exaggerated the courtesy due the his sister played so beautifully! Her face was lodgers, did not dare to sit on their own chairs. turned to the side; her gaze followed the lines of His father leaned against the door, his right notes, searching and sorrowful. Gregor crept hand stuck between two buttons of his fastened further forward and held his head close to the livery coat. His mother, however, accepted a floor, in order to meet her gaze if possible. The chair offered by one of the lodgers, and sat off music gripped him — was he then an animal? He in the corner where he had happened to place felt as if he were being guided to the sustenance the chair. he had unknowingly desired. He was deter- His sister began to play. His father and mined to press on all the way to his sister, to pull mother, on either side of her, followed every on her skirt and let her know that she could note, attentive to the movements of her hands. come into his room with her violin. No one here Gregor, drawn by the music, had ventured a bit knew how to appreciate her playing the way he further forward. His head was already in the did. He wanted never to let her out of his room living room. He hardly wondered at himself for again, at least not as long as he lived. His terrify- being so inconsiderate towards the others of ing shape would finally be of some use to him: late; earlier, this consideration had been a great he would be at all doors of his room at once,

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“Mr. Samsa!” called the middle lodger and 75 Home and Family without wasting another word, pointed at This painting, by Yosl Bergner, depicts Gregor’s Gregor, who was slowly inching his way forward. reaction to Grete’s violin: “The music gripped him — was he then an animal?” How does Bergner’s The violin fell silent. The middle lodger smiled work address this question? at first, shaking his head at his friends, and then looked down again at Gregor. His father seemed to consider it more urgent to reassure the lodgers than to drive Gregor back, despite the fact that they seemed calm and more entertained by Gregor than by the violin. He hurried over to them and tried with outspread arms to urge them into their room; at the same time, he wanted to block their view of Gregor with his body. They actually became a bit angry now, though it was unclear whether this was over his father’s behavior or over the dawning recognition that, unbeknownst to them, they had all the while had a neighbor like Gregor. They asked his father for an explanation, raised their arms, pulled agitatedly at their beards and only reluctantly retreated into their room. In the meantime his sister had come out of the trance into which she had fallen after her playing had been so suddenly broken off. For a time she had held her violin and bow in her limply hanging hands and continued to stare at the music, as if she were © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VISCOPY, Australia. Image: Private Collection / Bridgeman Images still playing. Now, all at once, she pulled herself together, laid the instrument in the lap of her mother, who, short of breath and gasping for air, hissing at all intruders. His sister, though, would was still seated, and ran into the next room, not be forced, but would rather stay with him which the lodgers were now approaching more willingly. She would sit next to him on the sofa, quickly at the urging of her father. Under her her ear inclined towards him, and he would practiced hands, the covers and pillows flew confide in her that he had intended to send high in the air and arranged themselves. Before her to the conservatory, and that, were it not the lodgers had reached the room, she was for the misfortune that had occurred, he had finished readying the beds and had slipped out. intended to announce it to everyone last His father’s stubbornness seemed to have Christmas — Christmas had surely passed returned to the extent that he forgot all respect already? — ignoring any possible objections. that he owed his lodgers. He kept urging them After this declaration, his sister would surely and urging them, until finally at the threshold burst into tears of emotion, and Gregor would the gentleman in the middle resoundingly lift himself up to her shoulder and kiss her neck, stamped his foot and so brought his father to a which she now left uncovered, without ribbon or standstill. “I hereby declare,” he said, and, rais- collar, since she had begun working at the store. ing his hand, sought the gaze of Gregor’s mother 220

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 220 18/08/16 12:28 PM and sister, as well, “that, in consideration of the His sister hurried to his mother and put her Kafka revolting conditions existing in this apartment hand to her forehead. His sister’s words seemed and this family” — and here, without a moment’s to have put his father’s thoughts in a surer The Metamorphosis hesitation, he spat on the ground — “I give course. He sat up straight, fiddling with his notice this instant. I will naturally pay absolutely uniform cap amongst the plates that still sat on nothing for the days I have lived here; on the the table from the lodgers’ evening meal, and contrary, I will consider bringing charges against looked for a time down at the quiet Gregor. you, which will — b elieve me — b e very easy to “We must try to get rid of it,” his sister finally 80 prove.” He fell silent and stared straight ahead, said to his father, for his mother heard nothing as if he were waiting for something. His two in the midst of her coughing. “It’s going to kill friends then obliged him by chiming in with the you both; I can see it coming. When people have words: “We, too, give notice this instant.” At that, to work as hard as we do, they can’t bear this he seized the door handle and shut the door kind of constant torture at home. I can’t bear it with a crash. any more.” And she began crying so hard that His father staggered to his chair, his hands her tears flowed down her mother’s face, where stretched out before him, and fell into it. It she began mechanically wiping them away with looked as if he were stretching himself out for her hand. his usual evening nap, but his head, sharply, “But my child,” said his father, sympatheti- ceaselessly nodding, showed that he was not cally and with striking compassion, “what sleeping at all. Gregor had lain all this time in should we do?” the same spot where the lodgers had discovered His sister only shrugged her shoulders as a him. His disappointment at the failure of his sign of the helplessness that had during her plans — perhaps, though, too, the weakness crying spell taken the place of her former caused by his long hunger — made it impossible certainty. “But if he understood us — ” his father for him to move. He was distinctly afraid that in said, half questioningly. His sister, in the midst the next moment everything was going to come of her tears, waved her hand violently as a sign crashing down on top of him. He waited. Not that that was out of the question. even the violin roused him, which slipped from “If he understood us,” his father repeated, his mother’s trembling fingers and fell from her and by closing his eyes, tried to absorb her lap, emitting a ringing tone. certainty that it was impossible, “then we might “My dear parents,” said his sister and struck be able to arrive at some arrangement with him. her hand on the table by way of preamble, “we But as things stand — ” can’t go on like this. If you can’t see it, I can. I “It has to go,” cried his sister. “That is the don’t want to use the name of my brother in only way, father. You must simply try to rid your- front of this monster, so let me just say this: we self of the thought that it’s Gregor. Our real have to try to get rid of it. We have tried as much misfortune is that we believed it for so long. But as humanly possible to care for it and to put up how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would with it. I don’t think it could reproach us in the have seen long ago that such an animal cannot least.” live with people and he would have left volun- “She is absolutely right,” said his father tarily. We would then have had no brother, under his breath. His mother, who seemed not but we could have lived on and honored his to have caught her breath yet, began to emit a memory. But this beast persecutes us, drives off muffled cough into the hand she held before her, the lodgers, and obviously wants to take over the a crazed expression in her eyes. apartment and force us to sleep out in the alley.

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Just look, Father,” she suddenly screamed, “he’s sister had stood up. His last glance fell on his Home and Family starting again!” And in a state of terror totally mother, who was now fast asleep. incomprehensible to Gregor, his sister aban- He was hardly in his room when the door doned his mother and practically vaulted off her was hastily pushed to, bolted fast and locked. chair, as if she would rather sacrifice her than The sudden noise behind him frightened Gregor remain in Gregor’s vicinity. She hurried behind so much that his legs buckled beneath him. It her father who, agitated entirely through her was his sister who had rushed to do it. She had behavior, stood up as well and half raised his stood, waiting, and had suddenly sprung arms as if to protect her. forward, light-footed — Gr egor had not even But it wasn’t at all Gregor’s intent to upset 85 heard her coming — cryin g out to her parents anyone, especially not his sister. He had just “Finally!” as she turned the key in the lock. begun to turn himself around in order to make “And now?” Gregor asked himself, and his way back into his room. Of course, that looked around in the dark. He soon discovered procedure looked peculiar enough, because his that he could no longer move at all. He didn’t ailing condition meant that in order to turn even wonder at this; on the contrary, it had seemed with difficulty he had to help with his head, unnatural to him that he had actually been able which he lifted repeatedly and braced against the ground. He paused and looked around. His good intentions seemed to be recognized: it had only been a momentary fright. They all looked at him, silent and sorrowful. His mother lay in her chair, her legs stretched before her and pressed together; her eyes were nearly falling shut from exhaustion. His father and sister sat next to one another, his sister with her hand laid around her father’s neck. “Maybe they’ll allow me to turn around now,” thought Gregor, and started to work on it again. He could not suppress the wheezing caused by his exertion, and he had to stop and rest now and then. No one rushed him: he was left to his own devices. When he had completed the turn, he immediately headed straight back. He was astonished by the vast distance that divided him from his room, and he could not grasp how in his weakened condition he had put the entire distance behind him, almost without

noticing it. Focused solely on crawling as quickly Photo © PVDE / Bridgeman Images as possible, he hardly noticed that no word and no outcry from his family disturbed him. He Kafka insisted that the cover of The Metamorphosis turned his head only when he was already at the not include a visual representation of Gregor in his door — not all the way, for he felt his neck transformed state. In what ways do you think getting stiff, but enough to see that nothing had that this first-edition cover captures the spirit changed behind him, except for the fact that his and ideas of the novella? 222

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The door to the bedroom opened then, and landing with the women and they all returned, Home and Family Mr. Samsa appeared in his livery with his wife on as if freed from a burden, to their apartment. one arm and his daughter on the other. They They decided to spend the day resting and 95 had all been crying; Grete pressed her face from taking a stroll. They had not only earned this time to time to her father’s arm. rest from work, they absolutely needed it. And “Leave my apartment immediately!” said so they sat at the table and wrote three letters Mr. Samsa and pointed to the door, without of excuse, Mr. Samsa to the bank directors, letting the women leave his side. “What do you Mrs. Samsa to her employer, and Grete to her mean?” said the middle lodger, somewhat supervisor. While they were writing the servant dismayed, and smiled mawkishly. The two entered in order to say that she was leaving, as others held their hands behind their backs and her morning work was finished. Writing, the rubbed them together continuously, as if in three of them merely nodded at first, without joyful expectation of a great fight, which would, looking up; only when the servant failed to they were sure, end favorably for them. “I mean depart did they look up angrily. “Well?” asked exactly what I say,” answered Mr. Samsa, and Mr. Samsa. The servant stood in the door, smil- advanced in a line with his companions toward ing, as if she had some great piece of good news the lodger. He stood quietly, at first, and looked to report to the family, but would only do so if at the ground, as if the things in his head were she were thoroughly interrogated. The nearly arranging themselves in a new order. “Then upright little ostrich feather on her hat, which we’ll go,” he said and looked up at Mr. Samsa, had annoyed Mr. Samsa the entire time she had as if a sudden access of humility required him been employed there, waved freely in all to seek renewed approval even for this decision. directions. “Well, what do you want?” asked Mr. Samsa merely nodded shortly several times, Mrs. Samsa, for whom the servant had the most his eyes wide and staring. At this, the man respect. “Well,” the servant answered, and could immediately walked with long strides into the not say more right away, fairly bursting with foyer. His two friends had listened at first, their friendly laughter, “well, you needn’t worry about hands completely still, and they now skipped getting rid of that thing next door. It’s all been after him directly, as if in fear that Mr. Samsa taken care of.” Mrs. Samsa and Grete bent to could step in front of them in the foyer and their letters again, as if they wanted to continue disrupt their connection to their leader. In the writing. Mr. Samsa, who saw that the servant was hall all three of them took their hats from the about to begin describing everything in great rack, drew their walking sticks from the stand, detail, decisively headed this off with an bowed mutely, and left the apartment. In what outstretched hand. Since she was not going to be proved to be a completely unnecessary precau- allowed to tell her story, she suddenly remem- tion, Mr. Samsa walked out with the two women bered her great haste, and, obviously deeply onto the landing. Leaning on the railing, they insulted, called out, “ ’Bye, everyone,” then spun watched as the three men slowly but steadily around wildly and left the apartment amidst a descended the stairs, disappearing on every terrific slamming of doors. floor at the turning of the stairwell, and emerg- “Tonight we’re firing her,” said Mr. Samsa, ing again after a few moments. The lower they but received no answer either from his wife or went, the more the Samsa family lost interest in from his daughter, for the servant seemed to them, and as a butcher’s boy carrying his burden have disturbed their but newly restored calm. on his head with dignity passed them and then They rose, went to the window, and remained climbed high above them, Mr. Samsa left the there, their arms around each other. Mr. Samsa 224

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. The story opens, “When Gregor Samsa awoke in 4. What information does Gregor learn about the his bed one morning from unquiet dreams, he family’s “entire financial situation and their found himself transformed into an enormous prospects” (para. 43)? How would you characterize insect.” When you first read those lines, did you Gregor’s reaction to this revelation? Why do you find them humorous? When did you begin to think he does not react with more anger or understand the serious intent, or did the fantastic resentment? or surreal situation make it difficult for you to take 5. How does each family member initially react to the story seriously? Could this “metamorphosis” Gregor’s transformation? What do their responses be a dream? say about each of them? How do those reactions 2. Among Gregor’s responses to his transformation, change or intensify over the course of the novella? we see anxiety, frustration, and surprise, but not 6. Who do you believe holds the most power in this shock. In fact, we’re told that Gregor “was eager to story of the Samsa family, and why? Does the see how today’s fantasies would gradually resolve balance of power shift over time? In what ways themselves” (para. 8). What do you think Franz could Gregor’s transformation be seen as a way to Kafka’s purpose might be in not presenting Gregor obtain power? as horrified by the discovery that he has transformed into an insect? 7. In the opening paragraph of part III, Gregor is described as “a member of the family who should 3. What does Kafka’s choice to make Gregor a not be treated as an enemy. The laws of familial traveling salesman suggest? What details of obligation dictated, rather, that one had to swallow Gregor’s professional life do we learn, and how one’s revulsion and be tolerant, simply be tolerant.” might his profession connect to his turning into a From whose perspective is this statement written? bug? Consider Kafka’s description of Gregor as How do you interpret that “familial obligation”? Do “condemned to work at a company where the least you think it is meant to be an indictment of his infraction immediately attracted the greatest family? Why or why not? suspicion” (para. 15).

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8. Kafka refers to the new jobs that Gregor’s parents The Metamorphosis? Consider the Deputy Director,

Home and Family and sister take on as “everything that the world the Samsa family’s servants, and the boarders. demanded of poor people” (para. 66). In what light 12. In what ways does Grete’s transformation parallel does Kafka portray them here? Is he suggesting Gregor’s? In what ways does it differ? Would her they are admirable for taking care of themselves? “metamorphosis” have been possible had Gregor Is he taking a sarcastic tone about the fact that remained the dutiful salesman going to work each they have to work? Explain, using details from the day? Why or why not? text to support your answer. 13. How do you interpret the final paragraph of The 9. When Grete plays her violin, Gregor is “drawn by Metamorphosis? Do you think that Kafka wanted the music” (para. 73) and enters the living room. his readers to see the ending as a positive new We witness this scene from his perspective: “The beginning, a resigned statement that life goes on, music gripped him — was he then an animal?” or an indictment of our failure to accept difference? (para. 74). How do you answer that question? How Or is it something else? Cite specific passages to do you think Kafka answers it? support your response. 10. What qualities from before his metamorphosis 14. While The Metamorphosis has many traditional does Gregor retain, particularly in his death scene narrative elements — a logical plot, a coherent sense (paras. 84–88)? Does Kafka present this final act of time and place, characters developed over the in such a way that we could interpret it as a course of the work — Kafka departs from tradition in suicide or murder? Or does Gregor just fade the way he combines vastly different elements of away? the grotesque with the everyday, presenting the 11. How do the minor characters contribute to the beautiful alongside the disgusting. Find two themes — such as the dissolution of the family examples of such juxtapositions and discuss how or dehumanization of the urban work force — in they contribute to one of Kafka’s central themes.

QUESTIONS ON STYLE AND STRUCTURE

1. By the end of Part I, has Kafka made us root for 5. The concept of time is central to the novella’s Gregor? What literary techniques does Kafka opening. What references to time — clocks, deadlines, employ to build sympathy for him? Cite specific numbers that control Gregor’s day, schedules — do passages to explain how Kafka elicits your you find in Part I? What assertion might Kafka be response. making with this language and these images? 2. The Metamorphosis contains many references to 6. Beginning in paragraph 9, Kafka describes, in sleep and dreams. The first sentence of the novella great detail, Gregor’s difficulties with moving and begins with the phrase, “When Gregor Samsa manipulating his new, unfamiliar body as he tries awoke in his bed one morning from unquiet to get out of bed. What do you believe is Kafka’s dreams. . . .” Might Kafka be suggesting that purpose in providing such a vivid description of his Gregor’s metamorphosis is entirely a dream? physical movements, and what is the effect? Is the Identify at least four passages and explain how humor intentional, or are these descriptions meant they support or challenge this interpretation. to evoke pity? Explain. 3. The Metamorphosis is told in the third person, but 7. The events in the novella take place almost entirely we are privy to what Gregor is thinking and feeling. within the Samsa apartment, though we see the How does this point of view affect the reader’s hospital from the window. What is the significance understanding of his situation? Cite specific of this setting? What does Kafka achieve by passages to support your response. limiting it in this way? Why do you think Kafka 4. What elements of irony do you find in paragraph 6? describes in such rich detail the surroundings that Pay special attention to the people who govern are “home” to the Samsa family? Gregor’s life — that is, those who make rules and 8. How does Kafka use images of freedom and those who affect his sense of self-worth. What entrapment to develop his theme(s) in The other examples of irony do you find in the story? Metamorphosis? Identify several specific examples Analyze the effect of at least two. and analyze their effect. 226

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speak, he is “terrified” because his “old voice” is Kafka prepared readers for this violence? How does

mixed with “an irrepressible, painful, squeaking the language describing Gregor and his father’s The Metamorphosis noise” (para. 7). How does Kafka develop this confrontation serve Kafka’s purpose? How does the relationship between voice and power (or the lack scene that ends Part II — in which Gregor’s father of both)? pummels him with apples — both parallel and 10. How does Kafka employ humor in The Metamor depart from the last paragraph of Part I? phosis? Is the tone outright sarcastic, or is it more 12. Where is the tipping point in the plot — a shift, an subtle? Would you characterize it as hilarious event, or revelation that signals a significant comedy? as dark humor? Discuss at least two change? Consider how the three “sections” examples of Kafka’s skillful use of different types structure the novella. If you had to point to a of humor in the novella and the purpose they paragraph or two as the climax of the novella, serve. which would you choose, and why?

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING

1. Why does Gregor feel “drawn once again into the tolerance and intolerance, The Metamorphosis circle of humanity” (para. 23)? What does this raises many questions for people like you, transitory hope suggest about Gregor? In what ways students who are facing a time of transition and does Kafka signal the gradual diminution of his transformation. Of course, my hope is that your humanity? What elements of humanity, if any, does education . . . will not transform you into Gregor retain until the very end? Be sure to analyze beetles, but into less earth-bound creatures. the text of the novella and avoid plot summary. Nonetheless, the tale of the unfortunate Gregor 2. How does the motif of money shape the Samsa can make us think more deeply about relationships between and among the members of our own identity, about the fluidity of what we the Samsa family? In your response, explain take to be stable and fixed, and about the whether you believe Kafka suggests that the perils and miracles of our own metamorphoses. dissolution of the family is the result or cause of a What is his central point? Explain why you agree or culture dominated by materialism. disagree with him that The Metamorphosis would 3. One critic made this point about Kafka’s work: “As be an appropriate — and compelling — text for new political estrangement becomes more and more college students to read and discuss with their the norm of Western society, and as capitalism, as peers and professors. Kafka said, becomes ‘the condition of the world 5. When he was thirty-six, Kafka wrote a “Letter to and the soul,’ Kafka’s fears will more and more his Father” (“Brief an den Vater”), a long document provide the frame in which we read his work.” in which he took stock of their troubled Write an essay analyzing how this commentary relationship. He never sent the letter and it affects your interpretation of The Metamorphosis. remained unpublished until recently. At one point, 4. In a lecture delivered to new college students at he recalls an incident that took place when he was the outset of their first semester, Professor Warren six years old. He had kept his parents awake by Breckman discussed The Metamorphosis, which repeatedly asking for water, and in response his all incoming students were required to read over exasperated father left him on the balcony of their the summer: apartment for a while, dressed only in his pajamas. Kafka admits that his father rarely applied physical Kafka’s The Metamorphosis strikes me as a punishment, yet the threat of violence, particularly particularly well-chosen novel . . . and I say this psychological, was all around. He wrote, “For not only because the adult life into which you years to come, I suffered agonies when I imagined are entering will inevitably have its Kafkaesque how this giant man, my father, the ultimate moments. Rather, with its exploration of authority, could come, for practically no reason, identity, of belonging and exclusion, of and carry me from my bed to the Pawlatsche

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[balcony] at night, and that I was such a nothing to Gilman explore themes of confinement and

Home and Family him.” Research the relationship between Kafka and alienation. After reading “The Yellow Wallpaper,” his father further, then write an essay that compare and contrast each work’s treatment of the examines how it influenced and may even be outsider. Pay particular attention to what forces reflected in The Metamorphosis. frustrate the protagonists, how the transformation 6. In his essay “The Beetle and the Fly,” filmmaker of each is a response to those forces, and whether David Cronenberg compares the plight of Gregor you interpret each narrative’s ending as bleak or with that of the protagonist in his movie, The Fly: more optimistic. In the movie I co-wrote and directed of George 9. A reader sent the following letter to Franz Kafka Langelaan’s short story The Fly, I have our in 1917: hero Seth Brundle, played by Jeff Goldblum, Dear Sir: say, while deep in the throes of his You have made me unhappy. transformation into a hideous fly/human I bought your “Metamorphosis” as a gift hybrid, “I’m an insect who dreamt he was a for my cousin. But she is incapable of man and loved it. But now the dream is over, understanding the story. My cousin gave it to and the insect is awake.” He is warning his her mother who doesn’t understand it either. former lover that he is now a danger to her, a Her mother gave the book to my other cousin, creature with no compassion and no empathy. who also didn’t find an explanation. Now they He has shed his humanity like the shell of a have written to me. They expect me to explain cicada nymph, and what has emerged is no the story to them since I am the Ph.D. in the longer human. He is also suggesting that to be family. But I am at a loss to explain it. a human, a self-aware consciousness, is a Sir! I have spent months in the trenches dream that cannot last, an illusion. Gregor too exchanging blows with the Russians without has trouble clinging to what is left of his batting an eyelash. But I could not stand losing humanity, and as his family begins to feel that my good name with my cousins. Only you can this thing in Gregor’s room is no longer Gregor, help me. You must do it since you are the one he begins to feel the same way. who landed me in this mess. So please tell me After watching the film, consider this quotation as what my cousin should think about you compare and contrast the concept of Metamorphosis. “metamorphosis” in both works. What social Most respectfully yours, commentary does each work provide? In Dr. Siegfried Wolff what ways does The Fly depart from The Metamorphosis? Consider such elements as Many would agree with Dr. Wolff’s cousin theme, narrative structure, and characterization. that The Metamorphosis resists interpretation, or at least a single or literal reading. How would 7. Develop your own interpretation of The you explain the “story” of the novella to someone Metamorphosis using multimedia tools — audio, else? How might Kafka? Write a letter to Dr. Wolff visual, or both. Explain why you made the choices in Kafka’s voice, advising him what to tell his you did. cousin. 8. Both The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) by Charlotte Perkins

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The Metamorphosis and the Modernist Vision

“Make it new!” — an exhortation poet Ezra Pound made in 1928 — has since become the battle cry of what we now refer to as the modernist movement. Although it is difficult to point to an actual date when the period began, the turn of the twentieth century saw a dramatic series of culture shocks that brought about changes in every sphere. Industrialization that shifted demographics from the country to the city, rapid social and political change, and advances in science and technology had exerted a profound influence by the early 1900s. Usually dated by the reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria (1837–1901), the Victorian Age saw many advances in medical, scientific, and technological knowledge as well as rapid industrialization and a boom in urban populations. The late Victorian era in particular was characterized by European imperial expansion, mainly into Africa and Asia, spurred by nationalistic pride. This struggle for power among European nations colonizing other continents placed an increasing strain on diplomatic relations, creating tension that would eventually lead to open conflict. Victoria’s reign also saw the rise of socialism, liberalism, and organized feminism — all challenges to long-established western European social, economic, and political systems. While other European countries, including France and Italy, experienced a series of political revolutions in the mid-nineteenth century, Britain’s political landscape shifted toward popular democracy as voting rights expanded incrementally; by 1884, men had attained near- universal suffrage. At the turn of the century, much of the western world was wrestling with groundbreaking ideas of the late 1800s: Sigmund Freud’s notion of the unconscious mind (the id), Karl Marx’s socialism, Charles Darwin’s theory of natural Bridgeman Images

/ selection, and Friedrich Nietzsche’s UIG

/ nihilist mantra — “God is dead” — that reflected a growing secularization in society. Perhaps the most destabilizing

Underwood Archives influence during the early twentieth century was World War I. One of the bloodiest wars in recorded history, Industrialization during the nineteenth century and the first to play out on a global spurred rapid urban expansion. The effects of urban scale, it introduced a deadly combi- expansion are evident in the above photograph, taken in 1900, which shows laundry hung out to dry nation of primitive trench-warfare in a Manhattan tenement. tactics and modern weaponry — by

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its finish, nearly 9 million people had Home and Family died. It was also one of the most polit- ically bewildering conflicts the world had ever seen. Though it began as a Bridgeman Images

/ struggle between the Austro- Hungarian Empire and Serbia, a tangled web of alliances quickly Archives Archives Charmet

dragged Russia, Great Britain, France, /

Germany, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, Japan, Bulgaria, and ultimately the United States into the fray. For many,

the death and destruction of the Great Private Collection War that ravaged Europe from 1914 to 1918 raised doubts about widely This image shows the ruins of the French city of accepted beliefs in science, politics, Verdun after eight months of bombardment from the and religion. The technological German and French armies. The Battle of Verdun was advances made possible by one of World War I’s longest and bloodiest battles, industrialization had produced deadly lasting from February 21 to December 18, 1916. weapons that caused destruction on a previously unimaginable scale; imperialist policies and nationalistic fervor had led to irreparable global conflict. Faith in the established political and social order of the Victorian era dwindled. This general uncertainty about the nature of reality contributed to a growing sense of alienation and fragmentation in the wake of World War I. Artists, musicians, and writers made a radical break with the past and sought new ways to interpret the now-unfamiliar world they confronted. Many rejected the so-called “realistic” depiction of human experience in both the written and visual arts of the nineteenth century. Traditional art forms suddenly seemed incapable of representing the mystery, complexity, and uncertainty of modern life. Many cite the 1913 Armory Show, the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as the start of the modernist movement. The three-city exhibition started in New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory, then went on to Chicago and Boston. It featured the works of European modern artists — including Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, and Pablo Picasso — and the show shocked many Americans who, accustomed to realistic art, were perplexed by experimental and abstract expression. Modernism is now known for its abstract art, symbolic poetry, and stream-of- consciousness prose — all meant to represent the subjective experience of modern life rather than the objective reality of it. These efforts were driven by innovation in form and content. Although both writers and visual artists experimented in many different forms, the modernists’ vision shares certain characteristics:

• a belief that traditional religious and social institutions such as the family had broken down; • a view of urban society as fostering a mechanistic, materialistic culture; • a sense of anonymity and alienation brought on, in part, by the banality of bourgeois life; and • a conviction that there is no such thing as absolute truth, only relative and subjective perceptions. 230

While these ideas may seem to add up to a fairly bleak view, modernists believed that their willingness to innovate, to “make it new,” and to experiment with forms more attuned to The Metamorphosis the social and political realities of the era could be a transformative, even healing experience. Writers, for instance, emphasized and validated the individual’s perception of reality, often exploring characters’ rich inner lives through the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique. This method of narration describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. Writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Jean Toomer, and William Faulkner used stream of consciousness to paint characters’ perceptions and observations as and the Modernist Vision and the Modernist elements that propel the narrative forward through association rather than causality. Modernist writers and artists often found the collage a mode of expression suited to their philosophical beliefs. In visual art, a collage is a work created by materials and objects glued to a flat surface. In poetry, this technique is called fragmentation, where diverse pieces or images come together — or don’t — in a way that mirrors the disjointed, chaotic modern world. In both cases, the collage abandons the logical relationships that typically order a work of art — such as cause-and-effect, chronology, and subordination — to express a less coherent view of reality, one that highlights subjective individual experience. The poet Ezra Pound coined the term “imagism” to characterize an early twentieth century style of poetry that sought to replace the abstract, often decorative language of the nineteenth century with clear, concise, concrete images. Pound’s famous two-line poem, “In a Station of the Metro,” epitomized the tenets of this movement:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd : Petals on a wet, black bough .

Pound observes a scene in the subway, then recasts — and elevates — it as a powerful image. Such overall economy of language, apt metaphors, and precisely observed detail were what imagist poets like Ezra Pound, H. D., Richard Aldington, William Carlos Williams, and Amy Lowell strove to create. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, written in 1912 and published in 1915, is a work forever poised on the cusp of modernism. In this section, you will consider the novella in the context of other literature and art from approximately the same period. You’ll have an opportunity to see how others interpret the dictum to “make it new” as well as how each writer and artist builds on the traditions and conventions of the past. We begin with an excerpt from a famous essay called “Tradition and the Individual Talent” by T. S. Eliot. In it, he argues against rejecting the past but instead urges his audience to redefine the relationship between past and present.

TEXTS IN CONTEXT T. S. Eliot / from Tradition and the Individual Talent (nonfiction) Otto Dix / Der Krieg (“The War”) (painting) Robert Burns / A Red, Red Rose and H. D. / Sea Rose (poetry) Amy Lowell / A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. and The Emperor’s Garden (poetry) Fernand Léger / La Ville (“The City”) (painting) T. S. Eliot / The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (poetry) Virginia Woolf / from Mrs. Dalloway (fiction) TEXTS IN CONTEXT 231

Home and Family Home and Family from Tradition and the Individual Talent

T. S. ELIOT Poet, dramatist, and critic Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He moved to England when he was twenty-five to attend Oxford University after studying at Harvard University and eventually became a British subject. His most famous works include “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), “The Wasteland” (1922), “Ash Wednesday” (1930), “Burnt Norton” (1941), “Little Gidding” (1942), “Four Quartets” (1943), and the play Murder in the Cathedral (1935). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. Eliot is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the twentieth century and is closely associated with the modernist movement — especially in his stream-of-consciousness style steeped in literary allusions and mythological references. Eliot believed that such complex poetry was necessary in order to reflect the complexities of modern civilization, but he also considered tradition to be an ongoing process that united the past with the present. His essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” explores the complex relationship between a poet’s historical context and the value of that poet’s unique voice.

n English writing we seldom speak of tradi- mean the impressionable period of adolescence, Ition, though we occasionally apply its name in but the period of full maturity. deploring its absence. We cannot refer to “the Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing tradition” or to “a tradition”; at most, we employ down, consisted in following the ways of the the adjective in saying that the poetry of So-and- immediate generation before us in a blind or so is “traditional” or even “too traditional.” timid adherence to its successes, “tradition” Seldom, perhaps, does the word appear except should positively be discouraged. We have seen in a phrase of censure. . . . many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; [W]hen we praise a poet, upon those aspects and novelty is better than repetition. Tradition is of his work in which he least resembles anyone a matter of much wider significance. It cannot else. In these aspects or parts of his work we be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain pretend to find what is individual, what is the it by great labour. It involves, in the first place, peculiar essence of the man. We dwell with the historical sense, which we may call nearly satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his indispensable to anyone who would continue to predecessors, especially his immediate prede- be a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the cessors; we endeavour to find something that historical sense involves a perception, not only can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; if we approach a poet without this prejudice we the historical sense compels a man to write not shall often find that not only the best, but the merely with his own generation in his bones, but most individual parts of his work may be those with a feeling that the whole of the literature of in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert Europe from Homer and within it the whole of their immortality most vigorously. And I do not the literature of his own country has a

232

simultaneous existence and composes a simul- No poet, no artist of any art, has his Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry taneous order. This historical sense, which is a complete meaning alone. His significance, his Der Krieg (“The War”) sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal appreciation is the appreciation of his relation together, is what makes a writer traditional. And to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value it is at the same time what makes a writer most him alone; you must set him, for contrast and acutely conscious of his place in time, of his comparison, among the dead. contemporaneity. [1920]

QUESTIONS

1. How does T. S. Eliot’s concept of “tradition” fuse past and present? 2. How does he challenge the view that the value of a work of art should be measured by its departure from its predecessors? 3. To what extent does the final paragraph of this excerpt argue that an artist must pay tribute — either by reflecting or refuting — the ideas of his or her predecessors? 4. How does Eliot’s concept of the presence of the past apply to musical artists? Choose a musician or band, contemporary or past, with whom you are familiar, and discuss.

Der Krieg (“The War”)

OTTO DIX Otto Dix (1891–1969) was a German artist known for his vivid depictions of the brutality of war. Dix volunteered as a machine-gunner during World War I and was sent to the Western Front in the autumn of 1915. He was at the Battle of the Somme in France, one of the bloodiest in military history. After the war, Dix taught at Dresden Academy. His paintings, done in the modernist style called German expressionism, reflected the horror of his war experiences. When the Nazis came to power in the early 1930s, they viewed his work as detrimental to the rise of militarism; thus, he was dismissed from his teaching position and denigrated in the German press. Some of his paintings were destroyed; other works, hidden away, have only recently been rediscovered. After being conscripted into the German national militia near the end of World War II, Dix was captured by French troops and held until February of 1946. He later returned to Germany, where his reputation as an artist was restored, and continued to create antiwar paintings until his death in 1969. The following triptych of paintings, titled Der Krieg (“The War”), is the culmination of a portfolio of antiwar paintings and drawings completed between 1924 and 1932.

TEXTS IN CONTEXT 233

Home and Family Home and Family Bridgeman Images

VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

[1932]

QUESTIONS

1. Although the paintings are not entirely representational, there are several recognizable elements. What are they? Be very specific in identifying the images — both figures and the setting — that make up this triptych. 2. What elements of deliberate distortion do you see in the paintings? How effective is this technique in comparison to more realistic depictions of wartime scenes? 3. How do the color and composition of the paintings contribute to their hallucinatory, nightmarish quality? 4. What details of these paintings support the argument that Otto Dix depicts the depravity and barbarity of war in the early twentieth century? 5. What narrative do these panels seem to tell? Do these images add up to a coherent, linear storyline? Consider the way Dix handles time: do these panels follow a chronology or conflate different times? 6. Although Dix’s Der Krieg specifically depicts the trench warfare of World War I, it has been seen as one of the most powerful indictments of war in general. To what extent is it still relevant to contemporary conflicts? Explain, using details from the triptych.

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A Red, Red Rose Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry

ROBERT BURNS A Red, Red Rose Robert Burns (1759–1796) was a poet and lyricist who remains a folk hero in his native Scotland to this day. Burns often wrote in the Scottish dialect, and his song “Auld Lang Syne” still commemorates the end of the calendar year in many places throughout the world. His most famous poem, “A Red, Red Rose,” also became a popular ballad. In it, Burns describes a rose as a symbol of romantic love and beauty, a traditional treatment of the flower. For centuries before and since, a rose tended either to represent a speaker’s beloved and his passion for her, or recalled the Virgin Mary’s purity in Christian theology. “A Red, Red Rose” typifies the kind of conventional interpretation of symbol that modernist poets would later question and subvert.

O my luve’s like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass, 5 So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry. Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear. And the rocks melt wi’ the sun: 10 O I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o’ life shall run. And fare-thee-weel, my only luve: And fare-thee-weel awhile! And I will come again, my luve, 15 Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile! O my luve’s like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my luve’s like the melodie

That’s sweetly play’d in tune. 20 [1794] QUESTIONS

1. What tone does the opening simile establish? 2. What other similes accumulate during the poem to support and enhance the opening one? 3. As a twenty-first– century reader, which of these similes do you find the most original and moving? Why? 4. Do you believe that relying upon the rose’s traditional associations increases or decreases its symbolic value? Explain.

TEXTS IN CONTEXT 235

Home and Family Home and Family Sea Rose

H. D. H. D. (1886–1961), pen name of Hilda Doolittle, was an influential American poet and novelist known for her association with imagism, a modernist literary movement that came to prominence in the early twentieth century. Imagists rejected overly sentimental, decorative language in favor of direct and succinct expression. Such poets often focused an entire poem on a single image, as H.D. does in the following poem, “Sea Rose.” This poem undermines the stereotype of roses as symbols of beauty, romance, and purity by framing the image in concrete, unsentimental terms that renew its power.

Rose, harsh rose, marred and with stint of petals, meagre flower, thin, sparse of leaf,

more precious 5 than a wet rose single on a stem — you are caught in the drift.

Stunted, with small leaf, you are flung on the sand, 10 you are lifted in the crisp sand that drives in the wind.

Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance 15 hardened in a leaf? [1916]

QUESTIONS

1. In what ways does the opening stanza (ll. 1–4) defy our expectations based on the traditional way of seeing and writing about a rose? Cite specific language choices. 2. Who is the speaker in this poem? Who (or what) is being addressed? 3. How do you interpret the line, “you are caught in the drift” (l. 8)? 4. What is the impact of comparing the sea rose to two other roses? How does the sea rose compare? 5. What do you think the speaker anticipates as the response to the poem’s final rhetorical question (ll. 14–16)? 6. What is the effect of the sparse, perhaps even stark, language of the poem? What is the difference, for instance, between “flung on the sand” and “flung harshly on the cold sand”? 7. Do you think the sea rose, as depicted in this poem, is beautiful? Why or why not? 8. What does the sea rose symbolize in this poem? In what ways does it both evoke and subvert traditional associations with the rose? 236

A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. and Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry

The Emperor’s Garden A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. and The Emperor’s Garden AMY LOWELL Amy Lowell (1874–1925) was an American poet from Brookline, Massachusetts. She was born into a prominent family, sister to the astronomer Percival Lowell and Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell. As a poet, Lowell was an early advocate for free verse and eventually embraced the imagist movement, which favored direct expression over decorative language. Lowell published eight collections of poetry in her lifetime, and three more were published after her death at age fifty-one, including What’s O’Clock, for which she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1926. In both “A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M.” and “The Emperor’s Garden,” Lowell blends unsentimental and blunt language with vivid imagery to evoke the alienating forces of modernity.

A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. The Emperor’s Garden

They have watered the street, Once, in the sultry heats of midsummer, It shines in the glare of lamps, An emperor caused the miniature mountains in Cold, white lamps, his garden And lies To be covered with white silk, Like a slow-moving river, 5 That so crowned

Barred with silver and black. They might cool his eyes 5 Cabs go down it, With the sparkle of snow. One, [1917] And then another. Between them I hear the shuffling of feet. 10 Tramps doze on the window-led ges, Night-walkers pass along the sidewalks. The city is squalid and sinister, With the silver-barred street in the midst,

Slow-moving, 15 A river leading nowhere. Opposite my window, The moon cuts, Clear and round, Through the plum- coloured night. 20 She cannot light the city; It is too bright. It has white lamps, And glitters coldly.

TEXTS IN CONTEXT 237

I stand in the window and watch the moon. 25 Home and Family Home and Family She is thin and lustreless, But I love her. I know the moon, And this is an alien city. [1914]

QUESTIONS

1. How would you characterize the speaker of “A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M.”? How does she depict the city? Does she use primarily literal or figurative language? Cite examples to support your response. 2. Where does a shift occur in “A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M.”? What is the relationship between what happens before and after that shift? 3. Summarize the poem “The Emperor’s Garden.” To what extent do you think your summary captures Amy Lowell’s purpose or ideas? 4. How does Lowell appeal to the senses in “The Emperor’s Garden”? Cite specific words and images. 5. Add at least five of the following modifiers to “The Emperor’s Garden”: sweltering, falling, gentle, sparkling, deep blue, bright, wise, sensuous. How do these additional descriptions change the effect the poem has on you? 6. Lowell believed that “concentration is of the very essence of poetry” and strove to “produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.” Based on these two poems, explain why you believe she did or did not imbue her own work with these qualities. 7. Judging from these examples, is it more important to feel or to understand imagist poetry — or is that a false dichotomy? Can one response to art exist without the other? Explain.

La Ville (“The City”)

FERNAND LÉGER Fernand Léger (1881–1955) was a French painter and sculptor. He was born in Normandy to farmers and served on the front lines for the French army during World War I. Like many artists associated with the modernist movement, Léger’s work blended abstract and recognizable figures to evoke the great changes wrought by urbanization, the first World War, and the increasing speed and apparent chaos of modern life. While Léger embraced recognizable subject matter later in his career, he also experimented with bold primary colors and geometric shapes to render it unfamiliar. In his famous painting, La Ville (“The City”), Léger reflects the vivid but disorienting and claustrophobic feeling of urban spaces in the early twentieth century.

238

Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry

La Ville (“The City”) Art Resource, NY Art Resource,

The Philadelphia Museum of Art [1919]

QUESTIONS

1. What elements of urban life can you discern in this painting? 2. How do the colors and geometric patterns in this painting capture the artist’s sense of movement in the city? 3. What do the broken texts and images suggest about the artist’s perception of urban spaces? 4. One critic described this painting as a “utopian billboard for machine-age urban life.” What elements of the work might support such an interpretation? 5. Following is a cityscape painted in 1877 by Gustave Caillebotte entitled Paris Street; Rainy Day. It exemplifies the type of realistic work that Fernand Léger believed no longer accurately portrayed urban life. How does it contrast with the cityscape of La Ville? Consider the geometry that structures the paintings, the figures, and the viewer’s perspective in both works.

TEXTS IN CONTEXT 239

Home and Family Home and Family

Gustave Caillebotte, French, 1848–1894, Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877, Oil on canvas, 212.2 × 276.2 cm (83 1/2 × 108 3/4 in.), Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, 1964.336, The Art Institute of Chicago

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T. S. ELIOT Poet, dramatist, and critic Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He moved to England when he was twenty-five to attend Oxford University after studying at Harvard University and eventually became a British subject. His most famous works include “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), “The Wasteland” (1922), “Ash Wednesday” (1930), “Burnt Norton” (1941), “Little Gidding” (1942), “Four Quartets” (1943), and the play Murder in the Cathedral (1935). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. Eliot is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the twentieth century and is closely associated with the modernist movement — especially in his use of stream of consciousness, a technique he employs in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to depict a speaker wandering through the streets of a city on a foggy night. Eliot did not compromise when it came to the language of poetry, believing that it should represent the complexities of modern civilization. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a poem begun when Eliot was a college student and published when he was twenty-eight, is considered one of those works that epitomize the cultural significance of poetry.

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S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry

A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,

Questa fiamma staria senza più scosse. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Ma perciocchè giammai di questo fondo Non tornò vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. 1

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deser ted streets, The muttering retreats 5 Of restless nights in one- nigh t cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oy ster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question . . . 10 Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, 15 The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, 20 And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; 25 There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands2 That lift and drop a question on your plate: 30

1 From Dante’s Inferno, canto XXVII, 61–66. The words are spoken by Guido da Montefeltro, who was condemned to hell for providing false counsel to Pope Boniface VII. When asked to identify himself, Guido responded, “If I thought my answers were given to anyone who could ever return to the world, this flame would shake no more; but since none ever did return above from this depth, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy I answer thee.” He does not know that Dante will return to earth to report on what he has seen and heard. — EDS. 2 Reference to the title of a poem about agricultural life by the early Greek poet Hesiod. — EDS. TEXTS IN CONTEXT 241

Time for you and time for me, Home and Family Home and Family And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go 35 Talking of Michelangelo. And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — 40 [They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin — [They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”] Do I dare 45 Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 50 I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all — 55 The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase. And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? 60 And how should I presume? And I have known the arms already, known them all — Arms that are braceleted and white and bare [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] Is it perfume from a dress 65 That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin?

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets, 70 And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? . . . 242

I should have been a pair of ragged claws Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

. . . . . The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! 75 Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? 80 But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,3 I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, 85 And in short, I was afraid. And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while 90 To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it toward some overwhelming question, To say: “I am Lazarus,4 come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all” — 95 If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: “That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.” And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, 100 After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor — And this, and so much more? — It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: 105 Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.” 110 . . . . .

3 From Matthew 14:1–11. King Herod ordered the beheading of John the Baptist at the request of Herod’s wife and daughter. — EDS. 4 From John 11:1–44. Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus. — EDS. TEXTS IN CONTEXT 243

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Home and Family Home and Family Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince: no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, 115 Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous — Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old . . . I grow old . . . 120 I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me. 125 I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown 130 Till human voices wake us, and we drown. [1917]

QUESTIONS

1. We can assume that the speaker of the poem is Prufrock. What kind of person is he? Try to describe him in three or four words. What qualities of his character do you think he unknowingly reveals through his perceptions and observations? 2. How does T. S. Eliot set the tone in the poem’s first stanza? Look carefully at both the figurative language and concrete details. 3. The “yellow fog” that is the subject of the poem’s third stanza has the qualities of a cat. Is this association threatening, comforting, or both? How does your interpretation of the fog affect your reading of the poem as a whole? 4. You may notice that the images are arranged from top to bottom — the description goes from the sky to the streets in the opening stanza and progresses from the windowpanes to the drains in the third. What is the effect of the way Eliot’s speaker, Prufrock, guides the reader’s eye and imagination? 5. The middle section of the poem (ll. 37–86) moves from the chaotic city setting into the fragmented, anxiety-ridden mind of the speaker. How is Prufrock’s physical description developed in lines 37–44? How do his physical characteristics connect to his emotional state? 6. In what ways is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” a poem about time? Read through the text and look for references to time — particularly aging, the meaning of time, and the word time itself. What might Eliot be asserting or questioning about the meaning of time? 7. How does this poem reflect modernist concerns about the loss of emotional connections and alienation? To what extent does Eliot explore the reasons why such estrangement occurs? To what extent does he offer a solution? 244

from Mrs. Dalloway Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry

VIRGINIA WOOLF Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was a renowned novelist, critic, and essayist closely associated with the modernist movement. Her most famous works are the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), and also many nonfiction essays, including A Room of One’s Own (1929). In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf experiments with stream of consciousness, the quintessential modernist narrative mode also used by T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Henry James, and others. In the following excerpt from the opening of Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf takes the reader into the mind of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class British woman planning a dinner party against the backdrop of the profound losses England suffered in World War I.

rs. Dalloway said she would buy the strange it was! — a few sayings like this about Mflowers herself. cabbages. For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The She stiffened a little on the kerb, waiting for doors would be taken off their hinges; Durtnall’s van to pass. A charming woman, Rumpelmayer’s men were coming. And then, Scrope Purvis thought her (knowing her as one thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning — does know people who live next door to one in fresh as if issued to children on a beach. Westminster); a touch of the bird about her, of What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had the jay, blue- green, light, vivacious, though she always seemed to her, when, with a little squeak was over fifty, and grown very white since her of the hinges, which she could hear now, she illness. There she perched, never seeing him, had burst open the French windows and waiting to cross, very upright. plunged at Bourton into the open air. How For having lived in Westminster — how many 5 fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the years now? over twenty, — one feels even in the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a midst of the traffic, or waking at night, Clarissa wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet was positive, a particular hush, or solemnity; an (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, indescribable pause; a suspense (but that might feeling as she did, standing there at the open be her heart, affected, they said, by influenza) window, that something awful was about to before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed. happen; looking at the flowers, at the trees with First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevo- the smoke winding off them and the rooks cable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. rising, falling; standing and looking until Peter Such fools we are, she thought, crossing Victoria Walsh said, “Musing among the vegetables?” — Street. For Heaven only knows why one loves it was that it? — “I prefer men to cauliflowers” — so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it was that it? He must have said it at breakfast one round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment morning when she had gone out on to the afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected terrace — Peter Walsh. He would be back from of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their India one of these days, June or July, she forgot downfall) do the same; can’t be dealt with, she which, for his letters were awfully dull; it was his felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very sayings one remembered; his eyes, his pocket- reason: they love life. In people’s eyes, in the knife, his smile, his grumpiness and, when swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the millions of things had utterly vanished — how uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses,

TEXTS IN CONTEXT 245

vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; even now, at this hour, discreet old dowagers Home and Family Home and Family brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and were shooting out in their motor cars on errands the jingle and the strange high singing of some of mystery; and the shopkeepers were fidgeting aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; in their windows with their paste and diamonds, London; this moment of June. their lovely old se a-gre en brooches in eigh teenth- For it was the middle of June. The War was century settings to tempt Americans (but one over, except for some one like Mrs. Foxcroft at must economise, not buy things rashly for the Embassy last night eating her heart out Elizabeth), and she, too, loving it as she did with because that nice boy was killed and now the old an absurd and faithful passion, being part of it, Manor House must go to a cousin; or Lady since her people were courtiers once in the time Bexborough who opened a bazaar, they said, of the Georges, she, too, was going that very with the telegram in her hand, John, her favou- night to kindle and illuminate; to give her party. rite, killed; but it was over; thank Heaven — ov er. But how strange, on entering the Park, the It was June. The King and Queen were at the silence; the mist; the hum; the slow-swimming Palace. And everywhere, though it was still so happy ducks; the pouched birds waddling; and early, there was a beating, a stirring of galloping who should be coming along with his back ponies, tapping of cricket bats; Lords, Ascot, against the Government buildings, most appro- Ranelagh and all the rest of it; wrapped in the priately, carrying a despatch box stamped with soft mesh of the grey-blue morning air, which, as the Royal Arms, who but Hugh Whitbread; her the day wore on, would unwind them, and set old friend Hugh — the admirable Hugh! down on their lawns and pitches the bouncing “Good-morning to you, Clarissa!” said Hugh, ponies, whose forefeet just struck the ground rather extravagantly, for they had known each and up they sprung, the whirling young men, other as children. “Where are you off to?” and laughing girls in their transparent muslins “I love walking in London,” said Mrs. Dalloway. who, even now, after dancing all night, were “Really it’s better than walking in the country.” taking their absurd woolly dogs for a run; and [1925]

QUESTIONS

1. Mrs. Dalloway is set in London, which is the focus of this opening section. How does Clarissa feel about the city? Cite specific words and passages to support your response. 2. Where does Virginia Woolf conflate or shift between the past and the present in this passage? What is the effect of these conflations and shifts? 3. What is the purpose of the conflicting emotions and contradictory actions in this passage? Identify two and discuss their effect. 4. Woolf intended to write a novel that underscored the profound change in life after World War I. How does the style of this passage make the reader experience the dislocation and disruption that the author believed characterized post–World War I London?

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The Metamorphosis and the Modernist Vision Mrs. Dalloway 1. In what ways is The Metamorphosis by Franz modernism primarily optimistic or pessimistic? Kafka a modernist work? Consider how it Consider at least two texts in your response. embodies some of the characteristics of this 5. Research another element of or influence on the movement as well as ways in which its style modernist movement, such as cubism, Sigmund and structure might prefigure later works like Freud’s work on the impact of the unconscious, Mrs. Dalloway. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, composer Igor 2. Modernism is, in many ways, a reaction to and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, or playwright preoccupation with the impact urbanization had on Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. What traditional beliefs and human relationships. characteristics of modernism do they express? Discuss how urban life is depicted in both The 6. The Metamorphosis and the texts in this section Metamorphosis and at least one other work from primarily represent European and American these Texts in Context. perspectives on early twentieth-century life, but 3. In the introduction to this section, we discussed the effects of modernism were global. Research the collage as a form modernists used to capture one of the following writers and artists and the fragmentation of life in the early twentieth discuss the form modernism takes in his or her century. Discuss how at least two of these works work: Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1914–1998), might be seen as “collages,” either visual or Indian painters Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) and written. Jamini Roy (1887–1972), Russian poet Anna 4. In their effort to “make it new” and reveal the Akhmatova (1889–1966), Martinique poet Aimé fissures of life in the early twentieth century, do the Césaire (1913–2008), Japanese novelist Jun’ichiroˉ artists you’ve explored — including Kafka — present Tanizaki (1886–1965), and Japanese poet Chika a bleak view of life in an age of rapid change, a Sagawa (1911–1936). hopeful perspective that results from facing change and trauma, or a little of both? In short, is

TEXTS IN CONTEXT 247

Home and Family FICTION

I Stand Here Ironing

TILLIE OLSEN Tillie Olsen (1913–2007) was born in Nebraska, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. Her parents were active socialists who fled Russia after the attempted revolution of 1905. She recalled, “It was a rich childhood from the standpoint of ideas.” She attended high school but abandoned formal education after the eleventh grade. Later in life, as an influential writer, she received nine honorary degrees from colleges and universities. Political activism and responsibilities as a wife and mother made Olsen’s writing sporadic. She published Tell Me a Riddle (1961), a series of four interconnected stories (the first of which is “I Stand Here Ironing”), Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974), and Silences (1978), a nonfiction work about her life and the obstacles to writing that caused her own silences. Olsen was influential in the founding of the Feminist Press in 1970. Later work included Mother to Daughter, Daughter to Mother, Mothers on Mothering: A Daybook and Reader (1984), and Mothers and Daughters: That Special Quality: An Exploration in Photographs (1987). Perhaps her most famous story, “I Stand Here Ironing” focuses on the struggle of a working-class mother.

stand here ironing, and what you asked She was a beautiful baby. The first and only 5 Ime moves tormented back and forth with one of our five that was beautiful at birth. You do the iron. not guess how new and uneasy her tenancy in “I wish you would manage the time to come her now-loveliness. You did not know her all in and talk with me about your daughter. I’m those years she was thought homely, or see her sure you can help me understand her. She’s a poring over her baby pictures, making me tell youngster who needs help and whom I’m deeply her over and over how beautiful she had interested in helping.” been — and would be, I would tell her — and was “Who needs help.” . . . Ev en if I came, what now, to the seeing eye. But the seeing eyes were good would it do? You think because I am her few or nonexistent. Including mine. mother I have a key, or that in some way you I nursed her. They feel that’s important could use me as a key? She has lived for nine- nowadays, I nursed all the children, but with her, teen years. There is all that life that has with all the fierce rigidity of first motherhood, I happened outside of me, beyond me. did like the books then said. Though her cries And when is there time to remember, to sift, battered me to trembling and my breasts ached to weigh, to estimate, to total? I will start and with swollenness, I waited till the clock decreed. there will be an interruption and I will have to Why do I put that first? I do not even know if gather it all together again. Or I will become it matters, or if it explains anything. engulfed with all I did or did not do, with what She was a beautiful baby. She blew shining should have been and what cannot be helped. bubbles of sound. She loved motion, loved light,

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 248 18/08/16 12:31 PM loved color and music and textures. She would go out, scaredy.” I knew Emily hated it even if Olsen lie on the floor in her blue overalls patting the she did not clutch and implore “don’t go surface so hard in ecstasy her hands and feet Mommy” like the other children, mornings. I Stand Here Ironing would blur. She was a miracle to me, but when She always had a reason why we should stay 15 she was eight months old I had to leave her home. Momma, you look sick. Momma, I feel daytimes with the woman downstairs to whom sick. Momma, the teachers aren’t there today, she was no miracle at all, for I worked or looked they’re sick. Momma, we can’t go, there was a for work and for Emily’s father, who “could no fire there last night. Momma, it’s a holiday today, longer endure” (he wrote in his good-by e note) no school, they told me. But never a direct “sharing want with us.” protest, never rebellion. I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre- I think of our others in their three-, four-ye ar- WPA world of the depression. I would start oldness — the explosions, the tempers, the running as soon as I got off the streetcar, denunciations, the demands — and I feel running up the stairs, the place smelling sour, suddenly ill. I put the iron down. What in me and awake or asleep to startle awake, when she demanded that goodness in her? And what was saw me she would break into a clogged weeping the cost, the cost to her of such goodness? that could not be comforted, a weeping I can The old man living in the back once said in hear yet. his gentle way: “You should smile at Emily more After a while I found a job hashing at night 10 when you look at her.” What was in my face so I could be with her days, and it was better. But when I looked at her? I loved her. There were all it came to where I had to bring her to his family the acts of love. and leave her. It was only with the others I remembered It took a long time to raise the money for her what he said, and it was the face of joy, and not fare back. Then she got chicken pox and I had to of care or tightness or worry I turned to wait longer. When she finally came, I hardly them — too late for Emily. She does not smile knew her, walking quick and nervous like her easily, let alone almost always as her brothers father, looking like her father, thin, and dressed and sisters do. Her face is closed and sombre, in a shoddy red that yellowed her skin and but when she wants, how fluid. You must have glared at the pockmarks. All the baby loveliness seen it in her pantomimes, you spoke of her rare gone. gift for comedy on the stage that rouses laughter She was two. Old enough for nursery school out of the audience so dear they applaud and they said, and I did not know then what I know applaud and do not want to let her go. now — the fatigue of the long day, and the lacer- Where does it come from, that comedy? ations of group life in the kinds of nurseries that There was none of it in her when she came back are only parking places for children. to me that second time, after I had to send her Except that it would have made no differ- away again. She had a new daddy now to learn ence if I had known. It was the only place there to love, and I think perhaps it was a better time. was. It was the only way we could be together, Except when we left her alone nights, telling 20 the only way I could hold a job. ourselves she was old enough. And even without knowing, I knew. I knew “Can’t you go some other time, Mommy, like the teacher that was evil because all these years tomorrow?” she would ask. “Will it be just a little it has curdled into my memory, the little boy while you’ll be gone? Do you promise?” hunched in the corner, her rasp, “why aren’t you The time we came back, the front door open, outside, because Alvin hits you? that’s no reason, the clock on the floor in the hall. She rigid 249

awake. “It wasn’t just a little while. I didn’t cry. Oh it is a handsome place, green lawns Home and Family Three times I called you, just three times, and and tall trees and fluted flower beds. High up then I ran downstairs to open the door so you on the balconies of each cottage the children could come faster. The clock talked loud. I threw stand, the girls in their red bows and white it away, it scared me what it talked.” dresses, the boys in white suits and giant She said the clock talked loud again that red ties. The parents stand below shrieking up night I went to the hospital to have Susan. She to be heard and the children shriek down to be was delirious with the fever that comes before heard, and between them the invisible wall red measles, but she was fully conscious all the “Not To Be Contaminated by Parental Germs week I was gone and the week after we were or Physical Affection.” home when she could not come near the new There was a tiny girl who always stood hand baby or me. in hand with Emily. Her parents never came. She did not get well. She stayed skeleton One visit she was gone. “They moved her to thin, not wanting to eat, and night after night she Rose Cottage,” Emily shouted in explanation. had nightmares. She would call for me, and I “They don’t like you to love anybody here.” would rouse from exhaustion to sleepily call She wrote once a week, the labored writing 30 back: “You’re all right, darling, go to sleep, it’s of a seven-year-old. “I am fine. How is the baby. just a dream,” and if she still called, in a sterner If I write my leter nicly I will have a star. Love.” voice, “now go to sleep, Emily, there’s nothing to There never was a star. We wrote every other hurt you.” Twice, only twice, when I had to get day, letters she could never hold or keep but up for Susan anyhow, I went in to sit with her. only hear read — once. “We simply do not have Now when it is too late (as if she would let 25 room for children to keep any personal posses- me hold her and comfort her like I do the sions,” they patiently explained when we pieced others) I get up and go to her at once at her one Sunday’s shrieking together to plead how moan or restless stirring. “Are you awake, Emily? much it would mean to Emily, who loved so to Can I get you something?” And the answer is keep things, to be allowed to keep her letters and always the same: “No, I’m all right, go back to cards. sleep, Mother.” Each visit she looked frailer. “She isn’t They persuaded me at the clinic to send her eating,” they told us. away to a convalescent home in the country (They had runny eggs for breakfast or mush where “she can have the kind of food and care with lumps, Emily said later, I’d hold it in my you can’t manage for her, and you’ll be free to mouth and not swallow. Nothing ever tasted concentrate on the new baby.” They still send good, just when they had chicken.) children to that place. I see pictures on the soci- It took us eight months to get her released ety page of sleek young women planning affairs home, and only the fact that she gained back so to raise money for it, or dancing at the affairs, or little of her seven lost pounds convinced the decorating Easter eggs or filling Christmas stock- social worker. ings for the children. I used to try to hold and love her after she They never have a picture of the children so came back, but her body would stay stiff, and I do not know if the girls still wear those gigantic after a while she’d push away. She ate little. red bows and the ravaged looks on the every Food sickened her, and I think much of life too. other Sunday when parents can come to visit Oh she had physical lightness and brightness, “unless otherwise notified” — as we were noti- twinkling by on skates, bouncing like a ball up fied the first six weeks. and down up and down over the jump rope, 250

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 250 18/08/16 12:31 PM skimming over the hill; but these were between them, that terrible balancing of hurts Olsen momentary. and needs I had to do between the two, and did

She fretted about her appearance, thin and 35 so badly, those earlier years. I Stand Here Ironing dark and foreign-looking at a time when every Oh there were conflicts between the others little girl was supposed to look or thought she too, each one human, needing, demanding, should look a chubby blonde replica of Shirley hurting, taking — but only between Emily and Temple. The doorbell sometimes rang for her, Susan, no, Emily toward Susan that corroding but no one seemed to come and play in the resentment. It seems so obvious on the surface, house or to be a best friend. Maybe because we yet it is not obvious; Susan, the second child, moved so much. Susan, golden- and curly-haired and chubby, There was a boy she loved painfully through quick and articulate and assured, everything in two school semesters. Months later she told me appearance and manner Emily was not; Susan, how she had taken pennies from my purse to not able to resist Emily’s precious things, losing buy him candy. “Licorice was his favorite and I or sometimes clumsily breaking them; Susan brought him some every day, but he still liked telling jokes and riddles to company for Jennifer better’n me. Why, Mommy?” The kind applause while Emily sat silent (to say to me of question for which there is no answer. later: that was my riddle, Mother, I told it to School was a worry for her. She was not glib Susan); Susan, who for all the five years’ differ- or quick in a world where glibness and quick- ence in age was just a year behind Emily in ness were easily confused with ability to learn. developing physically. To her overworked and exasperated teachers she I am glad for that slow physical development was an overconscientious “slow learner” who that widened the difference between her and her kept trying to catch up and was absent entirely contemporaries, though she suffered over it. She too often. was too vulnerable for that terrible world of youth- I let her be absent, though sometimes the ful competition, of preening and parading, of illness was imaginary. How different from my constant measuring of yourself against every now-strictness about attendance with the other, of envy, “If I had that copper hair,” “If I had others. I wasn’t working. We had a new baby. I that skin. . . .” She tormented herself enough about was home anyhow. Sometimes, after Susan grew not looking like the others, there was enough of old enough, I would keep her home from school, unsureness, the having to be conscious of words too, to have them all together. before you speak, the constant caring — what are Mostly Emily had asthma, and her breath- they thinking of me? without having it all magni- ing, harsh and labored, would fill the house with fied by the merciless physical drives. a curiously tranquil sound. I would bring the Ronnie is calling. He is wet and I change two old dresser mirrors and her boxes of collec- him. It is rare there is such a cry now. That time tions to her bed. She would select beads and of motherhood is almost behind me when the single earrings, bottle tops and shells, dried ear is not one’s own but must always be racked flowers and pebbles, old postcards and scraps, and listening for the child cry, the child call. We all sorts of oddments; then she and Susan would sit for a while and I hold him, looking out over play Kingdom, setting up landscapes and furni- the city spread in charcoal with its soft aisles of ture, peopling them with action. light. “Shoogily,” he breathes and curls closer. I Those were the only times of peaceful 40 carry him back to bed, asleep. Shoogily. A funny companionship between her and Susan. I have word, a family word, inherited from Emily, edged away from it, that poisonous feeling invented by her to say: comfort. 251

In this and other ways she leaves her seal, the spell, then the roaring, stamping audience, Home and Family I say aloud. And startle at my saying it. What do unwilling to let this rare and precious laughter I mean? What did I start to gather together, to try out of their lives. and make coherent? I was at the terrible, grow- Afterwards: You ought to do something ing years. War years. I do not remember them about her with a gift like that — but without well. I was working, there were four smaller ones money or knowing how, what does one do? We now, there was not time for her. She had to help have left it all to her, and the gift has so often be a mother, and housekeeper, and shopper. She eddied inside, clogged and clotted, as been used had to get her seal. Mornings of crisis and near and growing. hysteria trying to get lunches packed, hair She is coming. She runs up the stairs two at a 50 combed, coats and shoes found, everyone to time with her light graceful step, and I know she school or Child Care on time, the baby ready for is happy tonight. Whatever it was that occa- transportation. And always the paper scribbled sioned your call did not happen today. on by a smaller one, the book looked at by Susan “Aren’t you ever going to finish the ironing, then mislaid, the homework not done. Running Mother? Whistler painted his mother in a rocker. out to that huge school where she was one, she I’d have to paint mine standing over an ironing was lost, she was a drop; suffering over the board.” This is one of her communicative nights unpreparedness, stammering and unsure in her and she tells me everything and nothing as she classes. fixes herself a plate of food out of the icebox. There was so little time left at night after the 45 She is so lovely. Why did you want me to kids were bedded down. She would struggle come in at all? Why were you concerned? She over books, always eating (it was in those years will find her way. she developed her enormous appetite that is She starts up the stairs to bed. “Don’t get me legendary in our family) and I would be ironing, up with the rest in the morning.” “But I thought or preparing food for the next day, or writing you were having midterms.” “Oh, those,” she V-mail to Bill, or tending the baby. Sometimes, comes back in, kisses me, and says quite lightly, to make me laugh, or out of her despair, she “in a couple of years when we’ll all be atom- would imitate happenings or types at school. dead they won’t matter a bit.” I think I said once: “Why don’t you do some- She has said it before. She believes it. But thing like this in the school amateur show?” One because I have been dredging the past, and all morning she phoned me at work, hardly under- that compounds a human being is so heavy and standable through the weeping: “Mother, I did it. meaningful in me, I cannot endure it tonight. I won, I won; they gave me first prize; they I will never total it all. I will never come in to 55 clapped and clapped and wouldn’t let me go.” say: She was a child seldom smiled at. Her father Now suddenly she was Somebody, and as left me before she was a year old. I had to work imprisoned in her difference as she had been in her first six years when there was work, or I sent anonymity. her home and to his relatives. There were years She began to be asked to perform at other she had care she hated. She was dark and thin high schools, even in colleges, then at city and and foreign-looking in a world where the pres- statewide affairs. The first one we went to, I tige went to blondeness and curly hair and only recognized her that first moment when dimples, she was slow where glibness was thin, shy, she almost drowned herself into the prized. She was a child of anxious, not proud, curtains. Then: Was this Emily? The control, the love. We were poor and could not afford for her command, the convulsing and deadly clowning, the soil of easy growth. I was a young mother, 252

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 252 18/08/16 12:31 PM I was a distracted mother. There were other Let her be. So all that is in her will not children pushing up, demanding. Her younger bloom — but in how many does it? There is sister seemed all that she was not. There were still enough left to live by. Only help her to years she did not want me to touch her. She kept know — help make it so there is cause for her too much in herself, her life was such she had to to know — that she is more than this dress on keep too much in herself. My wisdom came too the ironing board, helpless before the iron. late. She has much to her and probably little will [1961] come of it. She is a child of her age, of depression, of war, of fear.

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. How is the setting of the story’s frame, a woman 5. In the final lines of the story, the narrator calls her standing at an ironing board, critical to the story’s daughter “a child of her age, of depression, of war, themes? of fear” (para. 55). How have historical events 2. What structural purpose do the interruptions in the affected Emily’s development? How have they narrator’s interior monologue serve in the story? imposed limitations on her? How have they made For instance, “Ronnie is calling. He is wet and I her strong? change him” in paragraph 43. Notice, too, how the 6. Why does Tillie Olsen give us so much specific speaker’s use of run-on sentences and made-up detail about Emily’s appearance? How do these words — such as “four-year-oldness” (para. 16) — descriptions contribute to her characterization? contrasts with short declarative sentences such as How is her appearance related to the choices she “She was a beautiful baby” (paras. 5 and 8), “I was makes to distinguish herself, to stand out? What nineteen” (para. 9), and “She was two” (para. 12). does the narrator mean when she says of Emily, What is the effect of this juxtaposition? “Now suddenly she was Somebody, and as 3. The “you” the narrator addresses at the beginning imprisoned in her difference as she had been in of the story refers to a teacher concerned about anonymity” (para. 47)? Emily’s welfare. At first the narrator seems 7. What, finally, is the narrator’s assessment of her somewhat defensive (as in the third paragraph, own performance as a mother? Do you think she when she sarcastically responds to the teacher’s believes she has been a good mother to her request). How does the relationship between the children? Overall, is the story hopeful or hopeless? narrator and the teacher evolve over the course of 8. Rarely do we hear Emily speak in this story. the story, so that by the end the narrator Instead, we hear others’ comments about and beseeches, “Only help her to know — help make it reactions to her, including her mother’s. How do so there is cause for her to know” (para. 56)? To you think Emily would characterize her relationship what extent might the narrator be addressing the with her mother? Do you think she would blame reader as well as the teacher? her mother or circumstances beyond their control 4. What do you make of the repeated references to for the difficulties she has experienced? quantitative matters in this story — for instance, “to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total” in paragraph 4? Find other examples of this motif in the story, and explain its significance.

Home and Family The Moths

HELENA MARÍA VIRAMONTES Helena María Viramontes (b. 1949) grew up as one of nine children in East Los Angeles. She has a BA from Immaculate Heart College, an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, and is currently a professor of English at Cornell University. Her mother’s plight — raising nine children with a husband who “showed all that is bad in being male” — moved Helena to write of Chicana women’s struggles. While writing for several underground literary publications, Viramontes published her first collection of short stories, The Moths and Other Stories, in 1985. In 1995, her first novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, was published, followed by Their Dogs Came with Them in 2007. The latter is her most ambitious work, drawing on her teenage years, the explosive decade of the 1960s, and the lives of young women coming of age at the height of El Movimiento, the fight for Latino civil rights in America. The story included here is the title piece from her 1985 collection about the relationship between a young woman and her abuelita, or grandmother.

was fourteen years old when Abuelita slices she said absorbed my fever. “You’re still Irequested my help. And it seemed only fair. alive, aren’t you?” Abuelita snapped back, her Abuelita had pulled me through the rages of pasty gray eye beaming at me and burning holes scarlet fever by placing, removing and replacing in my suspicions. Regretful that I had let secret potato slices on the temples of my forehead; she questions drop out of my mouth, I couldn’t look had seen me through several whippings, an arm into her eyes. My hands began to fan out, grow broken by a dare jump off Tío Enrique’s tool- like a liar’s nose until they hung by my side like shed, puberty, and my first lie. Really, I told low weights. Abuelita made a balm out of dried Amá, it was only fair. moth wings and Vicks and rubbed my hands, Not that I was her favorite granddaughter or shaped them back to size and it was the strang- anything special. I wasn’t even pretty or nice like est feeling. Like bones melting. Like sun shining my older sisters and I just couldn’t do the girl through the darkness of your eyelids. I didn’t things they could do. My hands were too big to mind helping Abuelita after that, so Amá would handle the fineries of crocheting or embroidery always send me over to her. and I always pricked my fingers or knotted my In the early afternoon Amá would push her colored threads time and time again while my hair back, hand me my sweater and shoes, and sisters laughed and called me bull hands with tell me to go to Mama Luna’s. This was to avoid their cute waterlike voices. So I began keeping a another fight and another whipping, I knew. I piece of jagged brick in my sock to bash my would deliver one last direct shot on Marisela’s sisters or anyone who called me bull hands. arm and jump out of our house, the slam of the Once, while we all sat in the bedroom, I hit screen door burying her cries of anger, and I’d Teresa on the forehead, right above her eyebrow gladly go help Abuelita plant her wild lilies or and she ran to Amá with her mouth open, her jasmine or heliotrope or cilantro or hierba- hand over her eye while blood seeped between buena1 in red Hills Brothers coffee cans. her fingers. I was used to the whippings by then. I wasn’t respectful either. I even went so far 1 Also yerba buena, or “good herb,” a plant in the mint family that is as to doubt the power of Abuelita’s slices, the steeped to make a tea-like beverage. — EDS. 254

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 254 18/08/16 12:31 PM Abuelita would wait for me at the top step of her her long hair in braids. Her mouth was vacant Viramontes porch holding a hammer and nail and empty and when she slept, her eyelids never closed all coffee cans. And although we hardly spoke, the way. Up close, you could see her gray eye hardly looked at each other as we worked over beaming out the window, staring hard as if to

root transplants, I always felt her gray eye on me. remember everything. I never kissed her. I left The Moths It made me feel, in a strange sort of way, safe the window open when I went to the market. and guarded and not alone. Like God was Across the street from Jay’s Market there was supposed to make you feel. a chapel. I never knew its denomination, but I On Abuelita’s porch, I would puncture holes 5 went in just the same to search for candles. I sat in the bottom of the coffee cans with a nail and a down on one of the pews because there were precise hit of a hammer. This completed, my job none. After I cleaned my fingernails, I looked up was to fill them with red clay mud from beneath at the high ceiling. I had forgotten the vastness her rose bushes, packing it softly, then making a of these places, the coolness of the marble perfect hole, four fingers round, to nest a sprout- pillars and the frozen statues with blank eyes. ing avocado pit, or the spidery sweet potatoes I was alone. I knew why I had never returned. that Abuelita rooted in mayonnaise jars with That was one of Apá’s biggest complaints. He toothpicks and daily water, or prickly chayotes2 would pound his hands on the table, rocking the that produced vines that twisted and wound all sugar dish or spilling a cup of coffee and scream over her porch pillars, crawling to the roof, up that if I didn’t go to mass every Sunday to save and over the roof, and down the other side, my goddamn sinning soul, then I had no reason making her small brick house look like it was to go out of the house, period. Punto final.3 He cradled within the vines that grew pear-shaped would grab my arm and dig his nails into me to squashes ready for the pick, ready to be steamed make sure I understood the importance of cate- with onions and cheese and butter. The roots chism. Did he make himself clear? Then he stra- would burst out of the rusted coffee cans and tegically directed his anger at Amá for her lousy search for a place to connect. I would then feed ways of bringing up daughters, being disrespect- the seedlings with water. ful and unbelieving, and my older sisters would But this was a different kind of help, Amá pull me aside and tell me if I didn’t get to mass said, because Abuelita was dying. Looking into right this minute, they were all going to kick the her gray eye, then into her brown one, the doctor holy shit out of me. Why am I so selfish? Can’t said it was just a matter of days. And so it you see what it’s doing to Amá, you idiot? So I seemed only fair that these hands she had would wash my feet and stuff them in my black melted and formed found use in rubbing her Easter shoes that shone with Vaseline, grab a caving body with alcohol and marihuana, missal and veil, and wave good-by e to Amá. rubbing her arms and legs, turning her face to I would walk slowly down Lorena to First to the window so that she could watch the Bird of Evergreen, counting the cracks on the cement. Paradise blooming or smell the scent of clove in On Evergreen I would turn left and walk to the air. I toweled her face frequently and held Abuelita’s. I liked her porch because it was her hand for hours. Her gray wiry hair hung over shielded by the vines of the chayotes and I could the mattress. Since I could remember, she’d kept get a good look at the people and car traffic on

2 Pear- shaped vegetable similar to a cucumber. — EDS. 3 Final point, period. — EDS.

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Evergreen without them knowing. I would jump alcohol, five cans of chicken broth, a big bottle of Home and Family up the porch steps, knock on the screen door as Pine Sol. At first Jay got mad because I thought I I wiped my feet and call Abuelita? mi Abuelita? had forgotten the money. But it was there all the As I opened the door and stuck my head in, I time, in my back pocket. would catch the gagging scent of toasting chile When I returned from the market, I heard on the placa.4 When I entered the sala,5 she Amá crying in Abuelita’s kitchen. She looked up would greet me from the kitchen, wringing her at me with puffy eyes. I placed the bags of hands in her apron. I’d sit at the corner of the groceries on the table and began putting the table to keep from being in her way. The chiles cans of soup away. Amá sobbed quietly. I never made my eyes water. Am I crying? No, Mama kissed her. After a while, I patted her on the back Luna, I’m sure not crying. I don’t like going to for comfort. Finally: “¿Y mi Amá?”8 she asked in mass, but my eyes watered anyway, the tears a whisper, then choked again and cried into her dropping on the tablecloth like candle wax. apron. Abuelita lifted the burnt chiles from the fire and Abuelita fell off the bed twice yesterday, I sprinkled water on them until the skins began to said, knowing that I shouldn’t have said it and separate. Placing them in front of me, she turned wondering why I wanted to say it because it only to check the menudo.6 I peeled the skins off and made Amá cry harder. I guess I became angry put the flimsy, limp looking green and yellow and just so tired of the quarrels and beatings and chiles in the molcajete7 and began to crush and unanswered prayers and my hands just there crush and twist and crush the heart out of the hanging helplessly by my side. Amá looked at tomato, the clove of garlic, the stupid chiles that me again, confused, angry, and her eyes were made me cry, crushed them until they turned filled with sorrow. I went outside and sat on the into liquid under my bull hand. With a wooden porch swing and watched the people pass. I sat spoon, I scraped hard to destroy the guilt, and there until she left. I dozed off repeating the my tears were gone. I put the bowl of chile next words to myself like rosary prayers: when do you to a vase filled with freshly cut roses. Abuelita stop giving when do you start giving when do touched my hand and pointed to the bowl of you . . . and when my hands fell from my lap, I menudo that steamed in front of me. I spooned awoke to catch them. The sun was setting, an some chile into the menudo and rolled a corn orange glow, and I knew Abuelita was hungry. tortilla thin with the palms of my hands. As I ate, There comes a time when the sun is defiant. a fine Sunday breeze entered the kitchen and a Just about the time when moods change, inevi- rose petal calmly feathered down to the table. table seasons of a day, transitions from one color I left the chapel without blessing myself and 10 to another, that hour or minute or second when walked to Jay’s. Most of the time Jay didn’t have the sun is finally defeated, finally sinks into the much of anything. The tomatoes were always realization that it cannot with all its power to soft and the cans of Campbell soups had rusted heal or burn, exist forever, there comes an illu- spots on them. There was dust on the tops of mination where the sun and earth meet, a final cereal boxes. I picked up what I needed: rubbing burst of burning red orange fury reminding us that although endings are inevitable, they are

4 Plate. — EDS. necessary for rebirths, and when that time came, 5 Living room. — EDS. 6 Traditional Mexican soup made with tripe. — EDS. 7 Stone bowl used for grinding foods or spices, similar to a mortar and pestle. — EDS. 8 “And my Mama?” — EDS.

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 256 18/08/16 12:31 PM Viramontes just when I switched on the light in the kitchen She was not as heavy as I thought and when 15 to open Abuelita’s can of soup, it was probably I carried her in my arms, her body fell into a V, then that she died. and yet my legs were tired, shaky, and I felt as The room smelled of Pine Sol and vomit and if the distance between the bedroom and bath-

Abuelita had defecated the remains of her room was miles and years away. Amá, where The Moths cancerous stomach. She had turned to the are you? window and tried to speak, but her mouth I stepped into the bathtub one leg first, then remained open and speechless. I heard you, the other. I bent my knees slowly to descend into Abuelita, I said, stroking her cheek, I heard you. the water slowly so I wouldn’t scald her skin. I opened the windows of the house and let the There, there, Abuelita, I said, cradling her, soup simmer and overboil on the stove. I turned smoothing her as we descended, I heard you. the stove off and poured the soup down the sink. Her hair fell back and spread across the water From the cabinet I got a tin basin, filled it with like eagle’s wings. The water in the tub over- lukewarm water and carried it carefully to the flowed and poured onto the tile of the floor. room. I went to the linen closet and took out Then the moths came. Small, gray ones that some modest bleached white towels. With the came from her soul and out through her mouth sacredness of a priest preparing his vestments, fluttering to light, circling the single dull light I unfolded the towels one by one on my shoul- bulb of the bathroom. Dying is lonely and I ders. I removed the sheets and blankets from her wanted to go to where the moths were, stay with bed and peeled off her thick flannel nightgown. her and plant chayotes whose vines would crawl I toweled her puzzled face, stretching out the up her fingers and into the clouds; I wanted to wrinkles, removing the coils of her neck, toweled rest my head on her chest with her stroking my her shoulders and breasts. Then I changed the hair, telling me about the moths that lay within water. I returned to towel the creases of her the soul and slowly eat the spirit up; I wanted to stretch-marked stomach, her sporadic vaginal return to the waters of the womb with her so that hairs, and her sagging thighs. I removed the lint we would never be alone again. I wanted. I from between her toes and noticed a mapped wanted my Amá. I removed a few strands of hair birthmark on the fold of her buttock. The scars from Abuelita’s face and held her small light on her back which were as thin as the life lines head within the hollow of my neck. The bath- on the palms of her hands made me realize how room was filled with moths, and for the first time little I really knew of Abuelita. I covered her with in a long time I cried, rocking us, crying for her, a thin blanket and went into the bathroom. I for me, for Amá, the sobs emerging from the washed my hands, and turned on the tub faucets depths of anguish, the misery of feeling half and watched the water pour into the tub with born, sobbing until finally the sobs rippled into vitality and steam. When it was full, I turned off circles and circles of sadness and relief. There, the water and undressed. Then, I went to get there, I said to Abuelita, rocking us gently, there, Abuelita. there. [1985]

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EXPLORING THE TEXT Home and Family 1. The story opens with the narrator’s grandmother 5. What is the role of religion and spirituality in this applying potato slices to the narrator’s fevered story? Why does the narrator think to herself when brow. Compare this opening with the conclusion of she is in the chapel, “I was alone. I knew why I had the story. What is the significance of the contrast never returned” (para. 7)? What conflicts does between the gentleness at the beginning and end religion cause in her family? of the story, and the rough treatment the narrator 6. Note the references throughout to Amá, the typically gives to family members (“I hit Teresa on narrator’s mother. When Amá is crying in Abuelita’s the forehead,” para. 2) and receives from them kitchen, why does the narrator choose not to kiss (“He would grab my arm and dig his nails into me,” her? Why at the end does the narrator say, “I para. 8)? wanted. I wanted my Amá” (para. 16)? What is the 2. How does the work Abuelita asks the narrator to nature of the relationship among these three do — planting, cooking — help the teenager deal generations of women? What does the narrator with her pent-up anger? want it to be? 3. As the narrator cares for her dying grandmother, 7. What do the moths represent in the story? she begins to ask herself, “when do you stop 8. Describe the ways in which the narrator is an giving when do you start giving” (para. 12), outcast in her own family. What does her continuing the repetition of the word “when” grandmother seem to understand that the girl’s throughout the following paragraph. What is the immediate family members do not? significance of this repetition for the fourteen-year- 9. Does the narrator’s fearlessness about death strike old narrator? What might she be questioning in her you as unusual? Why do you think she is own life? comfortable enough to bathe her dead Abuelita? 4. Trace the references to hands in this story. How do Consider the sensuous descriptions throughout you interpret the poultice balm of moth wings that the story. Abuelita uses to shape the narrator’s hands back into shape? What is the significance of this act?

The Progress of Love

ALICE MUNRO Alice Munro (b. 1931) is a Nobel Prize–winning Canadian writer, known primarily for her short stories. Munro was born in Ontario and began writing as a teenager, publishing her first story in 1950 while studying English and journalism at the University of Western Ontario. Munro’s first story collection, Dance of the Happy Shades (1968), won the Governor General’s Award, then Canada’s highest literary prize. Her publications include fourteen original short story collections, a novel, and numerous major awards. Munro won the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award for her story collection The Love of a Good Woman. For her contributions to the short story genre and to literature as a whole, Munro won the 2009 Man Booker International Prize and the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Munro’s stories are often set in Ontario, feature a strong regional focus, and present characters against a backdrop of deeply rooted customs and traditions. They also often employ a nonchronological structure reflecting the psychological complexity of memory and experience. In “The Progress of Love,” Munro follows a narrator’s nonlinear memories and reflections to examine a lifetime of changing family dynamics.

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 258 18/08/16 12:31 PM got a call at work, and it was my father. This Every night she totted up what she’d done and Munro Iwas not long after I was divorced and started said and thought, to see how it squared with in the real-esta te office. Both of my boys were in Him. That kind of life is dreary, people think, but The Progress of Love school. It was a hot enough day in September. they’re missing the point. For one thing, such a My father was so polite, even in the family. life can never be boring. And nothing can He took time to ask me how I was. Country happen to you that you can’t make use of. Even manners. Even if somebody phones up to tell if you’re racked by troubles, and sick and poor you your house is burning down, they ask first and ugly, you’ve got your soul to carry through how you are. life like a treasure on a platter. Going upstairs to “I’m fine,” I said. “How are you?” pray after the noon meal, my mother would be “Not so good, I guess,” said my father, in his full of energy and expectation, seriously smiling. old w ay — a pologetic but self-respecting. “I think She was saved at a camp meeting when she your mother’s gone.” was fourteen. That was the same summer that I knew that “gone” meant “dead.” I knew 5 her own mother — m y gr andmother — died. For that. But for a second or so I saw my mother in a few years, my mother went to meetings with a her black straw hat setting off down the lane. lot of other people who’d been saved, some The word “gone” seemed full of nothing but a who’d been saved over and over again, enthusi- deep relief and even an excitement — the excite- astic old sinners. She could tell stories about ment you feel when a door closes and your what went on at those meetings, the singing and house sinks back to normal and you let yourself hollering and wildness. She told about one old loose into all the free space around you. That man getting up and shouting, “Come down, O was in my father’s voice, too — be hind the apol- Lord, come down among us now! Come down ogy, a queer sound like a gulped breath. But my through the roof and I’ll pay for the shingles!” mother hadn’t been a burden — she hadn’t been She was back to being just an Anglican, a 10 sick a day — and far from feeling relieved at her serious one, by the time she got married. She death, my father took it hard. He never got used was twenty-five then, and my father was thirty- to living alone, he said. He went into the eight. A tall good-look ing couple, good dancers, Netterfield County Home quite willingly. good card-players, sociable. But serious He told me how he found my mother on the people — tha t’s how I would try to describe them. couch in the kitchen when he came in at noon. Serious the way hardly anybody is anymore. My She had picked a few tomatoes, and was setting father was not religious in the way my mother them on the windowsill to ripen; then she must was. He was an Anglican, an Orangeman, a have felt weak, and lain down. Now, telling this, Conservative, because that’s what he had been his voice went wobbly — meander ing, as you brought up to be. He was the son who got left on would expect — in his amazement. I saw in my the farm with his parents and took care of them mind the couch, the old quilt that protected it, till they died. He met my mother, he waited for right under the phone. her, they married; he thought himself lucky then “So I thought I better call you,” my father to have a family to work for. (I have two brothers, said, and he waited for me to say what he should and I had a baby sister who died.) I have a feel- do now. ing that my father never slept with any woman before my mother, and never with her until he My mother prayed on her knees at midday, at married her. And he had to wait, because my night, and first thing in the morning. Every day mother wouldn’t get married until she had paid opened up to her to have God’s will done in it. back to her own father every cent he had spent 259

on her since her mother died. She had kept track which he kept until he died. They washed and Home and Family of everything — b oard, books, clothes — s o that combed it beautifully, wet-wa ved it with their she could pay it back. When she married, she fingers. had no nest egg, as teachers usually did, no hope Sometimes, with all their care, he was a little 15 chest, sheets, or dishes. My father used to say, unhappy. He wanted to go home. He worried with a somber, joking face, that he had hoped to about the cows, the fences, about who was get a woman with money in the bank. “But you getting up to light the fire. A few flashes of take the money in the bank, you have to take the meanness — very few. Once, he gave me a face that goes with it,” he said, “and sometimes sneaky, unfriendly look when I went in; he said, that’s no bargain.” “I’m surprised you haven’t worn all the skin off your knees by now.” The house we lived in had big, high rooms, with I laughed. I said, “What doing? Scrubbing dark-gre en blinds on the windows. When the floors?” blinds were pulled down against the sun, I used “Praying!” he said, in a voice like spitting. to like to move my head and catch the light He didn’t know who he was talking to. flashing through the holes and cracks. Another thing I liked looking at was chimney stains, old I don’t remember my mother’s hair being or fresh, which I could turn into animals, anything but white. My mother went white in people’s faces, even distant cities. I told my own her twenties, and never saved any of her young two boys about that, and their father, Dan Casey, hair, which had been brown. I used to try to get said, “See, your mom’s folks were so poor, they her to tell what color brown. couldn’t afford TV, so they got these stains on “ D a r k .” 20 the ceiling — your mom had to watch the stains “Like Brent, or like Dolly?” Those were two on the ceiling!” He always liked to kid me about workhorses we had, a team. thinking poor was anything great. “I don’t know. It wasn’t horsehair.” “Was it like chocolate?” When my father was very old, I figured out that “Something like.” he didn’t mind people doing new sorts of “Weren’t you sad when it went white?” 25 things — for instance, my getting divorced — as “No. I was glad.” much as he minded them having new sorts of “Why?” reasons for doing them. “I was glad that I wouldn’t have hair Thank God he never had to know about the anymore that was the same color as my father’s.” commune. Hatred is always a sin, my mother told me. “The Lord never intended,” he used to say. Remember that. One drop of hatred in your soul Sitting around with the other old men in the will spread and discolor everything like a drop Home, in the long, dim porch behind the spirea of black ink in white milk. I was struck by that bushes, he talked about how the Lord never and meant to try it, but knew I shouldn’t waste intended for people to tear around the country the milk. on motorbikes and snowmobiles. And how the * * * Lord never intended for nurses’ uniforms to be All these things I remember. All the things I 30 pants. The nurses didn’t mind at all. They know, or have been told, about people I never called him “Handsome,” and told me he was a even saw. I was named Euphemia, after my real old sweetheart, a real old religious gentle- mother’s mother. A terrible name, such as man. They marvelled at his thick black hair, nobody has nowadays. At home they called me 260

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 260 18/08/16 12:31 PM Phemie, but when I started to work, I called some fields creamy with the buckwheat people Munro myself Fame. My husband, Dan Casey, called grew then. My mother sang. She sang a song she

me Fame. Then in the bar of the Shamrock said her own mother used to sing when she and The Progress of Love Hotel, years later, after my divorce, when I was Beryl were little girls. going out, a man said to me, “Fame, I’ve been “I once had a sweetheart, but now I have none. meaning to ask you, just what is it you are He’s gone and he’s left me to weep and to moan. famous for?” He’s gone and he’s left me, but contented I’ll be, “I don’t know,” I told him. “I don’t know, For I’ll get another one, better than he!” unless it’s for wasting my time talking to jerks like you.” I was excited because Beryl was coming, a 35 After that I thought of changing it altogether, visitor, all the way from California. Also, because to something like Joan, but unless I moved away I had gone to town in late June to write the from here, how could I do that? Entrance Examinations, and was hoping to hear soon that I had passed with honors. Everybody In the summer of 1947, when I was twelve, who had finished Grade 8 in the country schools I helped my mother paper the downstairs had to go into town to write those examinations. bedroom, the spare room. My mother’s sister, I loved that — the rustling sheets of foolscap, the Beryl, was coming to visit us. These two sisters important silence, the big stone high-school hadn’t seen each other for years. Very soon after building, all the old initials carved in the desks, their mother died, their father married again. He darkened with varnish. The first burst of went to live in Minneapolis, then in Seattle, with summer outside, the green and yellow light, the his new wife and his younger daughter, Beryl. townlike chestnut trees, and honeysuckle. And My mother wouldn’t go with them. She stayed all it was was this same town, where I have lived on in the town of Ramsay, where they had been now more than half my life. I wondered at it. living. She was boarded with a childless couple And at myself, drawing maps with ease and solv- who had been neighbors. She and Beryl had met ing problems, knowing quantities of answers. only once or twice since they were grown up. I thought I was so clever. But I wasn’t clever Beryl lived in California. enough to understand the simplest thing. The paper had a design of cornflowers on a I didn’t even understand that examinations white ground. My mother had got it at a reduced made no difference in my case. I wouldn’t be price, because it was the end of a lot. This meant going to high school. How could I? That was we had trouble matching the pattern, and before there were school buses; you had to behind the door we had to do some tricky fitting board in town. My parents didn’t have the with scraps and strips. This was before the days money. They operated on very little cash, as of pre-pasted wallpaper. We had a trestle table many farmers did then. The payments from the set up in the front room, and we mixed the paste cheese factory were about all that came in regu- and swept it onto the back of the paper with larly. And they didn’t think of my life going in wide brushes, watching for lumps. We worked that direction, the high-school direction. They with the windows up, screens fitted under them, thought that I would stay at home and help my the front door open, the screens door closed. mother, maybe hire out to help women in the The country we could see through the mesh of neighborhood who were sick or having a baby. screens and the wavery old window glass was all Until such time as I got married. That was what hot and flowering — milkw eed and wild carrot in they were waiting to tell me when I got the the pastures, mustard rampaging in the clover, results of the examinations. 261

You would think my mother might have a operator. His wife was German. She always Home and Family different idea, since she had been a school- made coffee instead of tea. She made strudel. teacher herself. But she said God didn’t care. The dough for the strudel hung down over the God isn’t interested in what kind of job or what edges of the table like a fine cloth. It sometimes kind of education anybody has, she told me. He looked to Marietta like a skin. doesn’t care two hoots about that, and it’s what Mrs. Sutcliffe was the one who talked He cares about that matters. Marietta’s mother out of hanging herself. This was the first time I understood how Marietta was home from school that day, God could become a real opponent, not just because it was Saturday. She woke up late and some kind of nuisance or large decoration. heard the silence in the house. She was always scared of that — a silent house — and as soon as My mother’s name as a child was Marietta. That she opened the door after school she would call, continued to be her name, of course, but until “Mama! Mama!” Often her mother wouldn’t Beryl came I never heard her called by it. My answer. But she would be there. Marietta would father always said Mother. I had a childish hear with relief the rattle of the stove grate or the notion — I knew it was childish — th at Mother steady slap of the iron. suited my mother better than it did other moth- That morning, she didn’t hear anything. She ers. Mother, not Mama. When I was away from came downstairs, and got herself a slice of bread her, I could not think what my mother’s face was and butter and molasses, folded over. She like, and this frightened me. Sitting in school, opened the cellar door and called. She went into just over a hill from home, I would try to picture the front room and peered out the window, my mother’s face. Sometimes I thought that if I through the bridal fern. She saw her little sister, couldn’t do it, that might mean my mother was Beryl, and some other neighborhood children dead. But I had a sense of her all the time, and rolling down the bit of grassy terrace to the side- would be reminded of her by the most unlikely walk, picking themselves up and scrambling to things — an upright piano, or a tall white loaf of the top and rolling down again. bread. That’s ridiculous, but true. “Mama?” called Marietta. She walked Marietta, in my mind, was separate, not through the house to the back yard. It was late swallowed up in my mother’s grownup body. spring, the day was cloudy and mild. In the Marietta was still running around loose up in sprouting vegetable gardens, the earth was her town of Ramsay, on the Ottawa River. In that damp, and the leaves on the trees seemed town, the streets were full of horses and puddles, suddenly full-sized, letting down drops of water and darkened by men who came in from the left over from the rain of the night before. bush on weekends. Loggers. There were eleven “Mama?” calls Marietta under the trees, 45 hotels on the main street, where the loggers under the clothesline. stayed, and drank. At the end of the yard is a small barn, where The house Marietta lived in was halfway up 40 they keep firewood, and some tools and old a steep street climbing from the river. It was a furniture. A chair, a straight-backed wooden double house, with two bay windows in front, chair, can be seen through the open doorway. and a wooden trellis that separated the two front On the chair, Marietta sees her mother’s feet, her porches. In the other half of the house lived the mother’s black laced shoes. Then the long, Sutcliffes, the people Marietta was to board with printed cotton summer work dress, the apron, after her mother died and her father left town. the rolled-up sleeves. Her mother’s shiny- Mr. Sutcliffe was an Englishman, a telegraph looking white arms, and neck, and face. 262

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 262 18/08/16 12:31 PM Her mother stood on the chair and didn’t Marietta did not find him at work that day. Munro answer. She didn’t look at Marietta, but smiled The office was empty. She ran out into the yard

and tapped her foot, as if to say, “Here I am, where the men were working. She stumbled in The Progress of Love then. What are you going to do about it?” the fresh sawdust. The men laughed and shook Something looked wrong about her, beyond the their heads at her. No. Not here. Not a-here right fact that she was standing on a chair and smiling now. No. Why don’t you try upstreet? Wait. Wait in this queer, tight way. Standing on an old chair a minute. Hadn’t you better get some clothes on with back rungs missing, which she had pulled first? out to the middle of the barn floor, where it They didn’t mean any harm. They didn’t teetered on the bumpy earth. There was a have the sense to see that something must be shadow on her neck. wrong. But Marietta never could stand men The shadow was a rope, a noose on the end laughing. There were always places she hated to of a rope that hung down from a beam overhead. go past, let alone into, and that was the reason. “Mama?” says Marietta, in a fainter voice Men laughing. Because of that, she hated “Mama. Come down, please.” Her voice is faint barbershops, hated their smell. (When she because she fears that any yell or cry might jolt started going to dances later on with my father, her mother into movement, cause her to step off she asked him not to put any dressing on his the chair and throw her weight on the rope. But hair, because the smell reminded her.) A bunch even if Marietta wanted to yell she couldn’t. of men standing out on the street, outside a Nothing but this pitiful thread of a voice is left to hotel, seemed to Marietta like a clot of poison. her — jus t as in a dream when a beast or a You tried not to hear what they were saying, but machine is bearing down on you. you could be sure it was vile. If they didn’t say “Go and get your father.” 50 anything, they laughed and vileness spread out That was what her mother told her to do, from them — poison — jus t the same. It was only and Marietta obeyed. With terror in her legs, she after Marietta was saved that she could walk ran. In her nightgown, in the middle of a right past them. Armed by God, she walked Saturday morning, she ran. She ran past Beryl through their midst and nothing stuck to her, and the other children, still tumbling down the nothing scorched her; she was safe as Daniel. slope. She ran along the sidewalk, which was at Now she turned and ran, straight back the that time a boardwalk, then on the unpaved way she had come. Up the hill, running to get street, full of last night’s puddles. The street home. She thought she had made a mistake leav- crossed the railway tracks. At the foot of the hill, ing her mother. Why did her mother tell her to it intersected the main street of the town. go? Why did she want her father? Quite possibly Between the main street and the river were so that she could greet him with the sight of her some warehouses and the buildings of small own warm body swinging on the end of a rope. manufacturers. That was where Marietta’s father Marietta should have stayed — she should have had his carriage works. Wagons, buggies, sleds stayed and talked her mother out of it. She were made there. In fact, Marietta’s father had should have run to Mrs. Sutcliffe, or any neigh- invented a new sort of sled to carry logs in the bor, not wasted time this way. She hadn’t bush. It had been patented. He was just getting thought who could help, who could even believe started in Ramsay. (Later on, in the States, he what she was talking about. She had the idea that made money. A man fond of hotel bars, barber- all families except her own lived in peace, that shops, harness races, women, but not afraid of threats and miseries didn’t exist in other people’s work — give him credit.) houses, and couldn’t be explained there. 263

A train was coming into town. Marietta had 55 offered him as a cheering present. Marietta’s Home and Family to wait. Passengers looked out at her from its mother was still sitting at the table. windows. She broke out wailing in the faces of those strangers. When the train passed, she Her heart was broken. That was what I always continued up the hill — a spectacle, with her hair heard my mother say. That was the end of it. uncombed, her feet bare and muddy, in her Those words lifted up the story and sealed it nightgown, with a wild, wet face. By the time she shut. I never asked, Who broke it? I never asked, ran into her own yard, in sight of the barn, she What was the men’s poison talk? What was the was howling. “Mama!” she was howling. meaning of the word “vile”? “Mama!” Marietta’s mother laughed after not hanging Nobody was there. The chair was standing herself. She sat at Mrs. Sutcliffe’s kitchen table just where it had been before. The rope was long ago and laughed. Her heart was broken. dangling over the back of it. Marietta was sure I always had a feeling, with my mother’s talk that her mother had gone ahead and done it. and stories, of something swelling out behind. Her mother was already dead — she had been Like a cloud you couldn’t see through, or get to cut down and taken away. the end of. There was a cloud, a poison, that had But warm, fat hands settled down on her touched my mother’s life. And when I grieved shoulders, and Mrs. Sutcliffe said, “Marietta. my mother, I became part of it. Then I would Stop the noise. Marietta. Child. Stop the crying. beat my head against my mother’s stomach and Come inside. She is well, Marietta. Come inside breasts, against her tall, firm front, demanding and you will see.” to be forgiven. My mother would tell me to ask Mrs. Sutcliffe’s foreign voice said, “Mari- God. But it wasn’t God, it was my mother I had et-cha,” giving the name a rich, important to get straight with. It seemed as if she knew sound. She was as kind as could be. When something about me that was worse, far worse, Marietta lived with the Sutcliffes later, she was than ordinary lies and tricks and meanness; it treated as the daughter of the household, and was a really sickening shame. I beat against my it was a household just as peaceful and comfort- mother’s front to make her forget that. able as she had imagined other households to My brothers weren’t bothered by any of this. 65 be. But she never felt like a daughter there. I don’t think so. They seemed to me like cheerful In Mrs. Sutcliffe’s kitchen, Beryl sat on the savages, running around free, not having to floor eating a raisin cookie and playing with the learn much. And when I just had the two boys black-and-white cat, whose name was Dickie. myself, no daughters, I felt as if something could Marietta’s mother sat at the table, with a cup of stop now — the stories, and griefs, the old coffee in front of her. puzzles you can’t resist or solve. “She was silly,” Mrs. Sutcliffe said. Did she 60 mean Marietta’s mother or Marietta herself? She Aunt Beryl said not to call her Aunt. “I’m not didn’t have many English words to describe used to being anybody’s aunt, honey. I’m not things. even anybody’s momma. I’m just me. Call me Marietta’s mother laughed, and Marietta Beryl.” blacked out. She fainted, after running all that Beryl had started out as a stenographer, and way uphill, howling, in the warm, damp morn- now she had her own typing and bookkeeping ing. Next thing she knew, she was taking black, business, which employed many girls. She had sweet coffee from a spoon held by Mrs. Sutcliffe. arrived with a man friend, whose name was Beryl picked Dickie up by the front legs and Mr. Florence. Her letter had said that she would 264

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 264 18/08/16 12:31 PM be getting a ride with a friend, but she hadn’t said talking to my mother, as a lady visitor usually Munro whether the friend would be staying or going on. did, she demanded to be shown everything

She hadn’t even said if it was a man or a woman. there was to see on a farm. She said that I was to The Progress of Love Mr. Florence was staying. He was a tall, thin take her around and explain things, and see that man with a long, tanned face, very light-colore d she didn’t fall into any manure piles. eyes, and a way of twitching the corner of his I didn’t know what to show. I took Beryl to mouth that might have been a smile. the icehouse, where chunks of ice the size of He was the one who got to sleep in the room dresser drawers, or bigger, lay buried in sawdust. that my mother and I had papered, because he Every few days, my father would chop off a piece was the stranger, and a man. Beryl had to sleep of ice and carry it to the kitchen, where it melted with me. At first we thought that Mr. Florence was in a tin-lined box and cooled the milk and quite rude, because he wasn’t used to our way of butter. talking and we weren’t used to his. The first Beryl said she had never had any idea ice morning, my father said to Mr. Florence, “Well, I came in pieces that big. She seemed intent on hope you got some kind of a sleep on that old bed finding things strange, or horrible, or funny. in there?” (The spare-room bed was heavenly, “Where in the world do you get ice that big?” with a feather tick.) This was Mr. Florence’s cue to I couldn’t tell if that was a joke. 80 say that he had never slept better. “Off of the lake,” I said. Mr. Florence twitched. He said, “I slept on 70 “Off of the lake! Do you have lakes up here worse.” that have ice on them all summer?” His favorite place to be was in his car. His car I told her how my father cut the ice on the was a royal-blue Chrysler, from the first batch lake every winter and hauled it home, and turned out after the war. Inside it, the upholstery buried it in sawdust, and that kept it from and floor covering and roof and door padding melting. were all pearl gray. Mr. Florence kept the names Beryl said, “That’s amazing!” of those colors in mind and corrected you if you “Well, it melts a little,” I said. I was deeply 85 said just “blue” or “gray.” disappointed in Beryl. “Mouse skin is what it looks like to me,” said “That’s really amazing.” Beryl rambunctiously. “I tell him it’s just mouse Beryl went along when I went to get the skin!” cows. A scarecrow in white slacks (this was what The car was parked at the side of the house, my father called her afterward), with a white sun under the locust trees. Mr. Florence sat inside hat tied under her chin by a flaunting red with the windows rolled up, smoking, in the rich ribbon. Her fingernails and toenails — she wore new- car smell. sandals — wer e painted to match the ribbon. She “I’m afraid we’re not doing much to enter- wore the small, dark sunglasses people wore at tain your friend,” my mother said. that time. (Not the people I knew — they didn’t “I wouldn’t worry about him,” said Beryl. 75 own sunglasses.) She had a big red mouth, a She always spoke about Mr. Florence as if there loud laugh, hair of an unnatural color and a high was a joke about him that only she appreciated. I gloss, like cherry wood. She was so noisy and wondered long afterward if he had a bottle in the shiny, so glamorously got up, that it was hard to glove compartment and took a nip from time to tell whether she was good-look ing, or happy, or time to keep his spirits up. He kept his hat on. anything. Beryl herself was being entertained enough We didn’t have any conversation along the for two. Instead of staying in the house and cowpath, because Beryl kept her distance from 265

the cows and was busy watching where she her face clean, and there was such a change that Home and Family stepped. Once I had them all tied in their stalls, I almost expected to see makeup lying in strips she came closer. She lit a cigarette. Nobody in the washbowl, like the old wallpaper we had smoked in the barn. My father and other farmers soaked and peeled. Beryl’s skin was pale now, chewed tobacco there instead. I didn’t see how covered with fine cracks, rather like the shiny I could ask Beryl to chew tobacco. mud at the bottom of puddles drying up in early “Can you get the milk out of them or does summer. your father have to?” Beryl said. “Is it hard “Look what happened to my skin,” she said. to do?” “Dieting. I weighed a hundred and sixty-nine I pulled some milk down through the cow’s 90 pounds once, and I took it off too fast and my teat. One of the barn cats came over and waited. face fell in on me. Now I’ve got this cream, I shot a thin stream into its mouth. The cat and I though. It’s made from a secret formula and you were both showing off. can’t even buy it commercially. Smell it. See, it “Doesn’t that hurt?” said Beryl. “Think if it doesn’t smell all perfumy. It smells serious.” was you.” She was patting the cream on her face with I had never thought of a cow’s teat as corre- puffs of cotton wool, patting away until there sponding to any part of myself, and was shaken was nothing to be seen on the surface. by this indecency. In fact, I could never grasp a “It smells like lard,” I said. warm, warty teat in such a firm and casual way “Christ Almighty, I hope I haven’t been again. paying that kind of money to rub lard on my face. Don’t tell your mother I swear.” Beryl slept in a peach-colored rayon nightgown She poured clean water into the drinking 100 trimmed with écru lace. She had a robe to glass and wet her comb, then combed her hair match. She was just as careful about the word wet and twisted each strand round her finger, “écru” as Mr. Florence was about his royal blue clamping the twisted strand to her head with and pearl gray. two crossed pins. I would be doing the same I managed to get undressed and put on my myself, a couple of years later. nightgown without any part of me being “Always do your hair wet, else it’s no good exposed at any time. An awkward business. I left doing it up at all,” Beryl said. “And always roll it my underpants on, and hoped that Beryl had under even if you want it to flip up. See?” done the same. The idea of sharing my bed with When I was doing my hair up — as I did for a grownup was a torment to me. But I did get to years — I sometimes thought of this, and thought see the contents of what Beryl called her beauty that of all the pieces of advice people had given kit. Hand-painted glass jars contained puffs of me, this was the one I had followed most carefully. cotton wool, talcum powder, milky lotion, ice- We put the lamp out and got into bed, and blue astringent. Little pots of red and mauve Beryl said, “I never knew it could get so dark. rouge — rather greasy-looking. Blue and black I’ve never known a dark that was as dark as this.” pencils. Emery boards, a pumice stone, nail She was whispering. I was slow to understand polish with an overpowering smell of bananas, that she was comparing country nights to city face powder in a celluloid box shaped like a nights, and I wondered if the darkness in shell, with the name of a dessert — Apricot Netterfield County could really be greater than Delight. that in California. I had heated some water on the coal-oil 95 “Honey?” whispered Beryl. “Are there any stove we used in summertime. Beryl scrubbed animals outside?” 266

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 266 18/08/16 12:31 PM Munro “Cows,” I said. 105 cottages, docks and boats, dark water reflecting “Yes, but wild animals? Are there bears?” the trees. All this and I hadn’t known about it.

“Yes,” I said. My father had once found bear This, too, was Bell’s Lake. I was glad to have seen The Progress of Love tracks and droppings in the bush, and the apples it at last, but in some way not altogether glad of had all been torn off a wild apple tree. That was the surprise. years ago, when he was a young man. Finally, a white frame building appeared, 115 Beryl moaned and giggled. “Think if with verandas and potted flowers, and some Mr. Florence had to go out in the night and twinkling poplar trees in front. The Wildwood he ran into a bear!” Inn. Today the same building is covered with stucco and done up with Tudor beams and Next day was Sunday. Beryl and Mr. Florence called the Hideaway. The poplar trees have been drove my brothers and me to Sunday school in cut down for a parking lot. the Chrysler. That was at ten o’clock in the morn- On the way back to the church to pick up my ing. They came back at eleven to bring my parents, Mr. Florence turned in to the farm next parents to church. to ours, which belonged to the McAllisters. The “Hop in,” Beryl said to me. “You, too,” she 110 McAllisters were Catholics. Our two families said to the boys. “We’re going for a drive.” were neighborly but not close. Beryl was dressed up in a satiny ivory dress “Come on, boys, out you get,” said Beryl to with red dots, and a red-lined frill over the hips, my brothers. “Not you,” she said to me. “You stay and red high-heele d shoes. Mr. Florence wore a put.” She herded the little boys up to the porch, pale-blue summer suit. where some McAllisters were watching. They “Aren’t you going to church?” I said. That were in their raggedy home clothes, because was what people dressed up for, in my their church, or Mass, or whatever it was, got out experience. early. Mrs. McAllister came out and stood Beryl laughed. “Honey, this isn’t listening, rather dumbfounded, to Beryl’s Mr. Florence’s kind of religion.” l aughing talk. I was used to going straight from Sunday Beryl came back to the car by herself. school into church, and sitting for another hour “There,” she said. “They’re going to play with the and a half. In summer, the open windows let in neighbor children.” the cedary smell of the graveyard and the occa- Play with McAllisters? Besides being sional, almost sacrilegious sound of a car Catholics, all but the baby were girls. swooshing by on the road. Today we spent this “They’ve still got their good clothes on,” 120 time driving through country I had never seen I said. before. I had never seen it, though it was less “So what? Can’t they have a good time with than twenty miles from home. Our truck went to their good clothes on? I do!” the cheese factory, to church, and to town on My parents were taken by surprise as well. Saturday nights. The nearest thing to a drive was Beryl got out and told my father he was to ride in when it went to the dump. I had seen the near the front seat, for the legroom. She got into the end of Bell’s Lake, because that was where my back, with my mother and me. Mr. Florence father cut the ice in winter. You couldn’t get turned again onto the Bell’s Lake road, and Beryl close to it in summer; the shoreline was all announced that we were all going to the choked up with bulrushes. I had thought that Wildwood Inn for dinner. the other end of the lake would look pretty much “You’re all dressed up, why not take advan- the same, but when we drove there today, I saw tage?” she said. “We dropped the boys off with 267

your neighbors. I thought they might be too use, and us to Thy service, for Christ’s sake. Home and Family young to appreciate it. The neighbors were Amen.” Refreshed, she sat up straight and happy to have them.” She said with a further passed the dish to me, saying, “Mind the olives. emphasis that it was to be their treat. Hers and There’s stones in them.” Mr. Florence’s. Beryl was smiling around at the room. “Well, now,” said my father. He probably The waitress came back with a basket of didn’t have five dollars in his pocket. “Well, now. rolls. I wonder do they let the farmers in?” “Parker House!” Beryl leaned over and He made various jokes along this line. In the 125 breathed in their smell. “Eat them while they’re hotel dining room, which was all in white — hot enough to melt the butter!” white tablecloths, white painted chairs — w ith Mr. Florence twitched, and peered into the 135 sweating glass water pitchers and high, whirring butter dish. “Is that what this is — but ter? I fans, he picked up a table napkin the size of a thought it was Shirley Temple’s curls.” diaper and spoke to me in a loud whisper, “Can His face was hardly less gloomy than before, you tell me what to do with this thing? Can I put but it was a joke, and his making it seemed to it on my head to keep the draft off?” convey to us something of the very thing that Of course he had eaten in hotel dining had just been publicly asked for — a blessing. rooms before. He knew about table napkins “When he says something funny,” said and pie forks. And my mother knew — she Beryl — who often referred to Mr. Florence as wasn’t even a country woman, to begin with. “he” even when he was right there — “you notice Nevertheless this was a huge event. Not exactly a how he always keeps a straight face? That pleasure — as Beryl must have meant it to be — reminds me of Mama. I mean of our mama, but a huge, unsettling event. Eating a meal in Marietta’s and mine. Daddy, when he made a public, only a few miles from home, eating in a joke you could see it coming a mile away — he big room full of people you didn’t know, the couldn’t keep it off his face — but Mama was food served by a stranger, a snippy-looking girl another story. She could look so sour. But she who was probably a college student working at a could joke on her deathbed. In fact, she did that summer job. very thing. Marietta, remember when she was “I’d like the rooster,” my father said. “How in bed in the front room the spring before she long has he been in the pot?” It was only good died?” manners, as he knew it, to joke with people who “I remember she was in bed in that room,” waited on him. my mother said. “Yes.” “Beg your pardon?” the girl said. “Well, Daddy came in and she was lying “Roast chicken,” said Beryl. “Is that okay for there in her clean nightgown, with the covers off, everybody?” because the German lady from next door had Mr. Florence was looking gloomy. Perhaps 130 just been helping her take a wash, and she was he didn’t care for jokes when it was his money still there tidying up the bed. So Daddy wanted that was being spent. Perhaps he had counted to be cheerful, and he said, ‘Spring must be on something better than ice water to fill up the coming. I saw a crow today.’ This must have glasses. been in March. And Mama said quick as a shot, The waitress put down a dish of celery and ‘Well, you better cover me up then, before it olives, and my mother said, “Just a minute while looks in that window and gets any ideas!’ The I give thanks.” She bowed her head and said German lady — Daddy said she just about quietly but audibly, “Lord, bless this food to our dropped the basin. Because it was true, Mama 268

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 268 18/08/16 12:31 PM was skin and bones; she was dying. But she treats, and, Marietta, you couldn’t find Daddy Munro could joke.” after all, could you? You could hear Marietta

Mr. Florence said, “Might as well when 140 howling, coming up the hill, a block away.” The Progress of Love there’s no use to cry.” “Natural for her to be upset,” my father said. “But she could carry a joke too far, Mama “Sure it was. Mama went too far.” could. One time, one time, she wanted to give “She meant it,” my mother said. “She meant Daddy a scare. He was supposed to be interested it more than you give her credit for.” in some girl that kept coming around to the “She meant to get a rise out of Daddy. That works. Well, he was a big good-looking man. So was their whole life together. He always said she Mama said, ‘Well, I’ll just do away with myself, was a hard woman to live with, but she had a lot and you can get on with her and see how you of character. I believe he missed that, with like it when I come back and haunt you.’ He told Gladys.” her not to be so stupid, and he went off down- “I wouldn’t know,” my mother said, in 150 town. And Mama went out to the barn and that particularly steady voice with which she climbed on a chair and put a rope around her always spoke of her father. “What he did say or neck. Didn’t she, Marietta? Marietta went look- didn’t say.” ing for her and she found her like that!” “People are dead now,” said my father. “It My mother bent her head and put her hands isn’t up to us to judge.” in her lap, almost as if she was getting ready to “I know,” said Beryl. “I know Marietta’s say another grace. always had a different view.” “Daddy told me all about it, but I can remem- My mother looked at Mr. Florence and ber anyway. I remember Marietta tearing off smiled quite easily and radiantly. “I’m sure you down the hill in her nightie, and I guess the don’t know what to make of all these family German lady saw her go, and she came out and matters.” was looking for Mama, and somehow we all The one time that I visited Beryl, when Beryl ended up in the barn — me, too, and some kids I was an old woman, all knobby and twisted up was playing with — and there was Mama up on a with arthritis, Beryl said, “Marietta got all chair preparing to give Daddy the fright of his life. Daddy’s looks. And she never did a thing with She’d sent Marietta after him. And the German herself. Remember her wearing that old navy- lady starts wailing, ‘Oh, Missus, come down blue crêpe dress when we went to the hotel that Missus, think of your little kindren’ — ‘kindren’ is time? Of course, I know it was probably all she the German for ‘children’ — ‘think of your kindren,’ had, but did it have to be all she had? You know, and so on. Until it was me standing there — I was I was scared of her somehow. I couldn’t stay in a just a little squirt, but I was the one noticed that room alone with her. But she had outstanding rope. My eyes followed that rope up and up and I looks.” Trying to remember an occasion when I saw it was just hanging over the beam, just flung had noticed my mother’s looks, I thought of the there — it wasn’t tied at all! Marietta hadn’t time in the hotel, my mother’s pale-olive skin noticed that, the German lady hadn’t noticed it. against the heavy white, coiled hair, her open, But I just spoke up and said, ‘Mama, how are you handsome face smiling at Mr. Florence — as if he going to manage to hang yourself without that was the one to be forgiven. rope tied around the beam?’ ” Mr. Florence said, “That’d be a tough one.” I didn’t have a problem right away with Beryl’s 155 “I spoiled her game. The German lady made 145 story. For one thing, I was hungry and greedy, coffee and we went over there and had a few and a lot of my attention went to the roast 269

chicken and gravy and mashed potatoes laid on and the wood stove, and taking their dirty Home and Family the plate with an ice-cream scoop and the bright clothes to town. People said they wouldn’t know diced vegetables out of a can, which I thought how to handle lamps or wood fires, and they much superior to those fresh from the garden. would burn the place down. But they didn’t. In For dessert, I had a butterscotch sundae, an fact, they didn’t manage badly. They kept the agonizing choice over chocolate. The others had house and barn in some sort of repair and they plain vanilla ice cream. worked a big garden. They even dusted their Why shouldn’t Beryl’s version of the same potatoes against blight — though I heard that event be different from my mother’s? Beryl was there was some sort of row about this and some strange in every way — ev erything about her was of the stricter members left. The place actually slanted, seen from a new angle. It was my moth- looked a lot better than many of the farms round er’s version that held, for a time. It absorbed about that were still in the hands of the original Beryl’s story, closed over it. But Beryl’s story families. The McAllister son had started a wreck- didn’t vanish; it stayed sealed off for years, but it ing business on their place. My own brothers wasn’t gone. It was like the knowledge of that were long gone. hotel and dining room. I knew about it now, I knew I was not being reasonable, but I had though I didn’t think of it as a place to go back the feeling that I’d rather see the farm suffer to. And indeed, without Beryl’s or Mr. Florence’s outright neglect — I’ d sooner see it in the hands money, I couldn’t. But I knew it was there. of hoodlums and scroungers — than see that The next time I was in the Wildwood Inn, in rainbow on the barn, and some letters that fact, was after I was married. The Lions Club had looked Egyptian painted on the wall of the a banquet and dance there. The man I had house. That seemed a mockery. I even disliked married, Dan Casey, was a Lion. You could get a the sight of those people when they came to drink there by that time. Dan Casey wouldn’t town — the men with their hair in ponytails, and have gone anywhere you couldn’t. Then the with holes in their overalls that I believed were place was remodelled into the Hideaway, and cut on purpose, and the women with long hair now they have strippers every night but Sunday. and no makeup and their meek, superior On Thursday nights, they have a male stripper. I expressions. What do you know about life, I felt go there with people from the real-estate office like asking them. What makes you think you can to celebrate birthdays or other big events. come here and mock my father and mother and their life and their poverty? But when I thought The farm was sold for five thousand dollars in of the rainbow and those letters, I knew they 1965. A man from Toronto bought it, for a hobby weren’t trying to mock or imitate my parents’ farm or just an investment. After a couple of life. They had displaced that life, hardly knowing years, he rented it to a commune. They stayed it existed. They had set up in its place these there, different people drifting on and off, for a beliefs and customs of their own, which I hoped dozen years or so. They raised goats and sold the would fail them. milk to the health-foo d store that had opened up That happened, more or less. The commune 160 in town. They painted a rainbow across the side disintegrated. The goats disappeared. Some of of the barn that faced the road. They hung tie- the women moved to town, cut their hair, put on dyed sheets over the windows, and let the long makeup, and got jobs as waitresses or cashiers to grass and flowering weeds reclaim the yard. My support their children. The Toronto man put the parents had finally got electricity in, but these place up for sale, and after about a year it was people didn’t use it. They preferred oil lamps sold for more than ten times what he had paid 270

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 270 18/08/16 12:31 PM Munro for it. A young couple from Ottawa bought it. He whistled again, differently. “What do you 170 They have painted the outside a pale gray with mean? She threw in a check?”

oyster trim, and have put in skylights and a “No, no. It was in bills. She did it deliberately. The Progress of Love handsome front door with carriage lamps on She went into town to the bank and she had either side. Inside, they’ve changed it around so them give it all to her, in a shoebox. She brought much that I’ve been told I’d never recognize it. it home and put it in the stove. She put it in just a I did get in once, before this happened, few bills at a time, so it wouldn’t make too big a during the year that the house was empty and blaze. My father stood and watched her.” for sale. The company I work for was handling it, “What are you talking about?” said Bob and I had a key, though the house was being Marks. “I thought you were so poor.” shown by another agent. I let myself in on a “We were. We were very poor.” Sunday afternoon. I had a man with me, not a “So how come she had three thousand client but a friend — Bob Marks, whom I was dollars? That would be like thirty thousand seeing a lot at the time. today. Easily. More than thirty thousand today.” “This is that hippie place,” Bob Marks said “It was her legacy,” I said. “It was what she 175 when I stopped the car. “I’ve been by here before.” got from her father. Her father died in Seattle He was a lawyer, a Catholic, separated from and left her three thousand dollars, and she his wife. He thought he wanted to settle down burned it up because she hated him. She didn’t and start up a practice here in town. But there want his money. She hated him.” already was one Catholic lawyer. Business was “That’s a lot of hate,” Bob Marks said. slow. A couple of times a week, Bob Marks “That isn’t the point. Her hating him, or would be fairly drunk before supper. whether he was bad enough for her to have a “It’s more than that,” I said. “It’s where I was right to hate him. Not likely he was. That isn’t born. Where I grew up.” We walked through the the point.” weeds, and I unlocked the door. “Money,” he said. “Money’s always the He said that he had thought, from the way 165 point.” I talked, that it would be farther out. “No. My father letting her do it is the point. “It seemed farther then.” To me it is. My father stood and watched and he All the rooms were bare, and the floors swept never protested. If anybody had tried to stop her, clean. The woodwork was freshly painted — I he would have protected her. I consider that was surprised to see no smudges on the glass. l o v e .” Some new panes, some old wavy ones. Some of “Some people would consider it lunacy.” 180 the walls had been stripped of their paper and I remember that that had been Beryl’s opin- painted. A wall in the kitchen was painted a deep ion, exactly. blue, with an enormous dove on it. On a wall in I went into the front room and stared at the front room, giant sunflowers appeared, and a the butterfly, with its pink-and-orange wings. butterfly of almost the same size. Then I went into the front bedroom and found Bob Marks whistled. “Somebody was an two human figures painted on the wall. A man artist.” and a woman holding hands and facing straight “If that’s what you want to call it,” I said, and ahead. They were naked, and larger than life turned back to the kitchen. The same wood size. stove was there. “My mother once burned up “It reminds me of that John Lennon and three thousand dollars,” I said. “She burned Yoko Ono picture,” I said to Bob Marks, who had three thousand dollars in that stove.” come in behind me. “That record cover, wasn’t 271

it?” I didn’t want him to think that anything he and my mother on either side of me. Their Home and Family had said in the kitchen had upset me. heated bodies pressed against me, through Bob Marks said, “Different color hair.” cloth; their smells crowded out the smells of the That was true. Both figures had yellow hair 185 cedar bush we passed through, and the pockets painted in a solid mass, the way they do it in the of bog, where Beryl exclaimed at the water lilies. comic strips. Horsetails of yellow hair curling Beryl smelled of all those things in pots and over their shoulders and little pigs’ tails of bottles. My mother smelled of flour and hard yellow hair decorating their not so private parts. soap and the warm crêpe of her good dress and Their skin was a flat beige pink and their eyes a the kerosene she had used to take the spots off. staring blue, the same blue that was on the “A lovely meal,” my mother said. “Thank you, kitchen wall. Beryl. Thank you, Mr. Florence.” I noticed that they hadn’t quite finished “I don’t know who is going to be fit to do the peeling the wallpaper away before making this milking,” my father said. “Now that we’ve all ate painting. In the corner, there was some paper in such style.” left that matched the paper on the other walls — “Speaking of money,” said Beryl — though a modernistic design of intersecting pink and nobody actually had been — “do you mind my gray and mauve bubbles. The man from Toronto asking what you did with yours? I put mine in must have put that on. The paper underneath real estate. Real estate in California — you can’t hadn’t been stripped off when this new paper lose. I was thinking you could get an electric went on. I could see an edge of it, the cornflow- stove, so you wouldn’t have to bother with a fire ers on a white ground. in summer or fool with that coal-oil thing, either “I guess this was where they carried on their one.” sexual shenanigans,” Bob Marks said, in a tone All the other people in the car laughed, even familiar to me. That thickened, sad, uneasy, but Mr. Florence. determined tone. The not particularly friendly “That’s a good idea, Beryl,” said my father. 195 lust of middle-ag ed respectable men. “We could use it to set things on till we get the I didn’t say anything. I worked away some of electricity.” the bubble paper to see more of the cornflowers. “Oh, Lord,” said Beryl. “How stupid can Suddenly I hit a loose spot, and ripped away a I get?” big swatch of it. But the cornflower paper came, “And we don’t actually have the money, too, and a little shower of dried plaster. either,” my mother said cheerfully, as if she was “Why is it?” I said. “Just tell me, why is it that continuing the joke. no man can mention a place like this without But Beryl spoke sharply. “You wrote me you getting around to the subject of sex in about two got it. You got the same as me.” seconds flat? Just say the words ‘hippie’ or My father half turned in his seat. “What ‘commune’ and all you guys can think about is money are you talking about?” he said. “What’s screwing! As if there wasn’t anything at all this money?” behind it but orgies and fancy combinations and “From Daddy’s will,” Beryl said. “That you 200 non-stop screwing! I get so sick of that — it’s all got last year. Look, maybe I shouldn’t have so stupid it just makes me sick!” asked. If you had to pay something off, that’s still a good use, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter. We’re all In the car, on the way home from the hotel, we 190 family here. Practically.” sat as before — the men in the front seat, the “We didn’t have to use it to pay anything off,” women in the back. I was in the middle, Beryl my mother said. “I burned it.” 272

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 272 18/08/16 12:31 PM Then she told how she went into town in the afternoon in Mr. Florence’s Chrysler, when my Munro truck, one day almost a year ago, and got them mother told them all together. Why, then, can I

to give her the money in a box she had brought see the scene so clearly, just as I described it to The Progress of Love along for the purpose. She took it home, and put Bob Marks (and to others — he was not the it in the stove and burned it. first)? I see my father standing by the table in the My father turned around and faced the road middle of the room — the table with the drawer ahead. in it for knives and forks, and the scrubbed I could feel Beryl twisting beside me while oilcloth on top — and there is the box of money my mother talked. She was twisting, and moan- on the table. My mother is carefully dropping ing a little, as if she had a pain she couldn’t the bills into the fire. She holds the stove lid by suppress. At the end of the story, she let out a the blackened lifter in one hand. And my father, sound of astonishment and suffering, an angry standing by, seems not just to be permitting her groan. to do this but to be protecting her. A solemn “So you burned up money!” she said. “You 205 scene, but not crazy. People doing something burned up money in the stove.” that seems to them natural and necessary. At My mother was still cheerful. “You sound as least, one of them is doing what seems natural if I’d burned up one of my children.” and necessary, and the other believes that the “You burned their chances. You burned up important thing is for that person to be free, to everything the money could have got for them.” go ahead. They understand that other people “The last thing my children need is money. might not think so. They do not care. None of us need his money.” How hard it is for me to believe that I made “That’s criminal,” Beryl said harshly. She that up. It seems so much the truth it is the pitched her voice into the front seat: “Why did truth; it’s what I believe about them. I haven’t you let her?” stopped believing it. But I have stopped telling “He wasn’t there,” my mother said. “Nobody 210 that story. I never told it to anyone again after was there.” telling it to Bob Marks. I don’t think so. I didn’t My father said, “It was her money, Beryl.” stop just because it wasn’t, strictly speaking, “Never mind,” Beryl said. “That’s criminal.” true. I stopped because I saw that I had to give “Criminal is for when you call in the police,” up expecting people to see it the way I did. I had Mr. Florence said. Like other things he had said to give up expecting them to approve of any part that day, this created a little island of surprise of what was done. How could I even say that I and a peculiar gratitude. approved of it myself? If I had been the sort of Gratitude not felt by all. person who approved of that, who could do it, I “Don’t you pretend this isn’t the craziest 215 wouldn’t have done all I have done — run away thing you ever heard of,” Beryl shouted into the from home to work in a restaurant in town when front seat. “Don’t you pretend you don’t think I was fifteen, gone to night school to learn so! Because it is, and you do. You think just the typing and bookkeeping, got into the real-esta te same as me!” office, and finally become a licensed agent. I wouldn’t be divorced. My father wouldn’t have My father did not stand in the kitchen watching died in the county home. My hair would be my mother feed the money into the flames. It white, as it has been naturally for years, instead wouldn’t appear so. He did not know about it — of a color called Copper Sunrise. And not one of it seems fairly clear, if I remember everything, these things would I change, not really, if I that he did not know about it until that Sunday could. 273

Bob Marks was a decent man — go od- up right away. Moments of kindness and recon- Home and Family hearted, sometimes with imagination. After I ciliation are worth having, even if the parting had lashed out at him like that, he said, “You has to come sooner or later. I wonder if those don’t need to be so tough on us.” In a moment, moments aren’t more valued, and deliberately he said, “Was this your room when you were a gone after, in the setups some people like little girl?” He thought that was why the mention myself have now, than they were in those old of the sexual shenanigans had upset me. marriages, where love and grudges could be And I thought it would be just as well to let growing underground, so confused and stub- him think that. I said yes, yes, it was my room born, it must have seemed they had forever. when I was a little girl. It was just as well to make [1986]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. Why do you think the story is called “The Progress How do the two differ? What remains the same in of Love”? What kind of progress does Euphemia both versions of the story? make (or not make)? 6. Among the themes examined in “The Progress of 2. “The Progress of Love” spans three distinct time Love” are self-delusion, personal identity, religious periods. Considering both the changes in the faith, family obligations, marriage, gender, and setting and the character of the narrator, family. Choose one or two of these themes — or Euphemia, identify each period. How does Alice one that’s not mentioned here — and discuss how Munro characterize each one? How do her Munro addresses and develops it. You might language choices signal each transition through consider the ways she uses characterization, time? setting, dialogue, or point of view to build the 3. Novelist and short story writer Lorrie Moore has theme or themes you have chosen. said, “If short stories are about life and novels are 7. This story contains several misunderstandings, or about the world, one can see Munro’s capacious at least miscommunications. Trace one or two of stories as being a little about both: fate and time them. What point do you think they make about and love are the things she is most interested in, the “progress of love”? as well as their unexpected outcomes.” In what 8. The narrator, who has already had three different ways is “The Progress of Love” about life? In what names — Euphemia, Phemie, and Fame — says she ways is it about fate? would like to change her name to something 4. Take a careful look at para. 158. How do Munro’s simple like Joan but then asks herself, “unless I diction and syntax choices help her achieve moved away from here, how could I do that?” her purpose here? How do they create the tone (para. 32). What does this hesitation suggest about and mood? What does the passage add to the her character? How does it relate to some of the story? story’s themes? 5. When she relays the story of how Marietta’s 9. Compare Euphemia’s twelve-year-old self to her mother almost hanged herself (paras. 40–61), present-day self. What characteristics remain the Euphemia presents the event as Marietta’s version same? How do we know what happens — and of what happened. How does Euphemia use that doesn’t happen — to her? What is the effect of story to characterize her mother’s family life and having certain events (like her family’s decision not the relationship between her mother’s parents? to send Euphemia to school) happen offstage? How might it be connected to Marietta’s deep Why do you think Fame (as she is known in religious faith? Compare Euphemia’s telling to adulthood) continues to tell some stories as truth Beryl’s version of the same event (paras. 141–53). even though she knows they are not, in fact, true?

274

On My First Son On My First Son

BEN JONSON Ben Jonson (1572–1637) was a dominant force in English theater for much of his adult life and was widely regarded as the equal of Shakespeare. Born in London to an indigent widowed mother, he was encouraged to attend college. However, financial considerations compelled him to become a bricklayer, a trade Jonson “could not endure.” He ultimately joined the army and fought for the Protestant cause in Holland. Returning to England in 1592, he took the London theater by storm. He tried his hand at both acting and directing, but it was in writing that he excelled. His early tragedies have not survived the ages, but his later comedies have, including Every Man in His Humour (1598), which was performed by a cast that included William Shakespeare, as well as Volpone (1606), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614). He also wrote many masques (a genre now extinct) for the court of King James I and Queen Anne. “On My First Son” is an epitaph written after the death of Jonson’s first son, Benjamin, at the age of seven.

Farewell, thou child of my right hand,1 and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why 5 Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ’scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And, if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” 10 For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loves may never like too much. [1616]

1Benjamin means “son of my right hand” in Hebrew. — EDS.

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. In line 2 the speaker calls hope a “sin.” How can 4. What does the speaker mean when he asks, this be? “O could I lose all father now!” (l. 5)? 2. How do you interpret the metaphor in lines 3–4, in 5. Why do you think the speaker calls his son “his which Ben Jonson compares his son’s life to a best piece of poetry” (l. 10)? What does this loan? What does this comparison suggest about suggest about the value he places on his poetry? the speaker’s faith and his resulting views on life? 6. What do you make of the final lines of the epitaph? 3. How does the speaker attempt to console himself To whom does the “his” in line 11 refer to? What is over the loss of his son? Identify language in the the difference between the words “love” and “like” in poem that demonstrates your point. the last line? What does the speaker vow in that line? 275

Home and Family Before the Birth of One of Her Children

ANNE BRADSTREET In 1630, Anne Bradstreet (1612/13–1678) and her husband, Simon, the son of a nonconformist minister, sailed to Massachusetts with Anne’s parents. With The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) — possibly published in England without her knowledge — she became the first female poet in America. Because the Puritan community disdained female intellectual ambition, it was thought advisable to append the words “By a Gentle Woman in Those Parts,” to reassure readers that Bradstreet was a diligent Puritan mother. Bradstreet’s most remarkable poetry consists of thirty-five short reflective poems, explicit in their description of familial and marital love. Some of these appeared in the 1678 edition of The Tenth Muse; others remained hidden in her notebook until they were published in 1867. The twentieth century saw renewed interest in America’s first female poet with John Berryman’s poem “Homage to Mistress Bradstreet” (1956) and new editions of her work in 1967 and 1981. The mother of eight children, she writes of impending childbirth with apprehension and acceptance of the will of God in “Before the Birth of One of Her Children.”

All things within this fading world hath end, Let be interred in my oblivious grave; Adversity doth still our joys attend; If any worth or virtue were in me, No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet, Let that live freshly in thy memory But with death’s parting blow is sure to meet. And when thou feel’st no grief, as I no harms, The sentence past is most irrevocable, 5 Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms, 20 A common thing, yet oh, inevitable. And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend, Look to my little babes, my dear remains. How soon’t may be thy lot to lose thy friend, And if thou love thyself, or loved’st me, We both are ignorant, yet love bids me These O protect from stepdame’s injury. These farewell lines to recommend to thee, 10 And if chance to thine eyes shall bring this verse, 25 That when that knot’s untied that made us one, With some sad sighs honor my absent hearse; I may seem thine, who in effect am none. And kiss this paper for thy love’s dear sake, And if I see not half my days that’s due, Who with salt tears this last farewell did take. What nature would, God grant to yours and you; [1678] The many faults that well you know I have 15

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. Anne Bradstreet had borne eight children, had lost 4. Why do you think Bradstreet adds “if thou love two, and was battling tuberculosis when she wrote thyself” to her qualification “or loved’st me” (l. 23)? this poem. How are those circumstances reflected What additional power does the “or” invoke? in the sentiments expressed in the poem? How is 5. Although the poem is presented without stanza the poem itself not only last wishes but also a breaks, it falls into sections. What are they? How legacy to her children? do they form a sort of argument that the speaker is 2. Restate the following line into simple language: making? “Adversity doth still our joys attend” (l. 2). What might 6. How would you describe the tone of this poem? the speaker mean by that statement in general, and Try using a pair of words, such as “cautiously how might it apply to her situation in particular? optimistic” or “fearful yet hopeful.” 276 3. How do you interpret the paradox in line 21? Explain the double meaning of “remains” in line 22.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was an influential English poet and literary critic best Sonnet: On Receiving a Letter Informing Me of the Birth Son known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. Coleridge studied at Cambridge University but never received a degree. Throughout his life, Coleridge battled anxiety and depression and suffered from neuralgic and rheumatic pains. He was treated for these conditions with laudanum, which fostered an opium addiction. In 1795, Coleridge met poet William Wordsworth and in 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth published a joint volume of poetry, Lyrical Ballads, signaling the beginning of the English romantic age. Although he was primarily known as a poet, most of Coleridge’s poetry was not published until after his death, and he likely considered himself a philosopher and critic first. Coleridge’s travels throughout Europe brought him into contact with transcendentalism, the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and the German classical poet Friedrich Schiller, whose dramatic trilogy Wallenstein Coleridge translated into English. Coleridge was also an influential Shakespearean, delivering a series of lectures in 1810–1811. Before his seminal lecture on Hamlet in January 1812, critical consensus had been that Hamlet was one of Shakespeare’s inferior works. In 1816, Coleridge finished Biographia Literaria, a volume blending autobiography, dissertations, and criticism. Coleridge died in 1834, leaving behind his unpublished Opus Maximum, a post-Kantian philosophical treatise. In “Sonnet: On Receiving a Letter Informing Me of the Birth of a Son,” Coleridge reflects with his trademark mix of rapture and melancholy on the premature birth of his son Hartley.

When they did greet me father, sudden awe Weigh’d down my spirit: I retired and knelt Seeking the throne of grace, but inly felt No heavenly visitation upwards draw My feeble mind, nor cheering ray impart. 5 Ah me! before the Eternal Sire I brought Th’ unquiet silence of confused thought And hopeless feelings: my o’erwhelmed heart Trembled, and vacant tears stream’d down my face. And now once more, O Lord! to thee I bend, 10 Lover of souls! and groan for future grace, That ere my babe youth’s perilous maze have trod, Thy overshadowing Spirit may descend, And he be born again, a child of God! [1796]

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EXPLORING THE TEXT Home and Family 1. Trace the speaker’s emotional state throughout the 6. Where does the poem deviate from the expected poem. What is his predominant emotion? How is ten-syllable lines? What do you think these that emotion communicated? Consider in digressions from the sonnet form signal about the particular the oxymoron (“unquiet silence”) in line 7 speaker’s emotional state? How do they help or the strange turn of speech (“vacant tears”) in convey the speaker’s attitude? line 9. 7. In 1802, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the “Letter 2. How would you characterize the speaker’s to Sara Hutchinson,” which was later published in attitude toward the news of his son’s birth? What part as “Dejection: An Ode.” The unpublished part words or phrases are most revealing about his included the following lines: attitude? Those little Angel Children (woe is me!) 3. What does the speaker wish for his son? Why do There have been hours, when feeling how they you think that wish seems so urgent for the bind speaker? And pluck out the Wing-feathers of my 4. Look carefully at the punctuation in the first line. Mind . . . How would the meaning of the line change if there I have half-wish’d they never had been born! were a comma after “me”? How does that slight Compare these lines to the poem above. What ambiguity connect with the rest of the poem? seeds of Coleridge’s ambivalence do you see in 5. How does the sonnet form suit the subject matter? the sonnet? Consider the rhyme scheme (abba, cddc, effe, gg) as well as the two quatrains and the couplet at the end.

We Are Seven

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH William Wordsworth (1770–1850) is one of the most famous and influential poets of the Western world and one of the premier Romantics. Widely known for his reverence of nature and the power of his lyrical verse, he lived in the Lake District of northern England, where he was inspired by the natural beauty of the landscape. With Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he published Lyrical Ballads in 1798; the collection, which changed the direction of English poetry, begins with Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and includes Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.” Among Wordsworth’s other most famous works are “The World Is Too Much with Us” (p. 449), a sonnet; “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”; and “The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind,” an autobiographical poem. “We Are Seven” first appeared in Lyrical Ballads.

— A simple Child, She had a rustic, woodland air, That lightly draws its breath, And she was wildly clad: 10 And feels its life in every limb, Her eyes were fair, and very fair; What should it know of death? — Her beauty made me glad.

I met a little cottage Girl: 5 “Sisters and brothers, little Maid, She was eight years old, she said; How many may you be?” Her hair was thick with many a curl “How many? Seven in all,” she said, 15 278 That clustered round her head. And wondering looked at me.

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 278 18/08/16 12:31 PM Wordsworth “And where are they? I pray you tell.” “And often after sunset, Sir, 45 She answered, “Seven are we; When it is light and fair, And two of us at Conway dwell, I take my little porringer, And two are gone to sea. 20 And eat my supper there.

“Two of us in the church-yard lie, “The first that died was sister Jane; We Are Seven My sister and my brother; In bed she moaning lay, 50 And, in the church-yar d cottage, I Till God released her of her pain; Dwell near them with my mother.” And then she went away.

“You say that two at Conway dwell, 25 “So in the church-yard she was laid; And two are gone to sea, And, when the grass was dry, Yet ye are seven! — I pray you tell, Together round her grave we played, 55 Sweet Maid, how this may be.” My brother John and I.

Then did the little Maid reply, “And when the ground was white with snow, “Seven boys and girls are we; 30 And I could run and slide, Two of us in the church-yard lie, My brother John was forced to go, Beneath the church-yard tree.” And he lies by her side.” 60

“You run about, my little Maid, “How many are you, then,” said I, Your limbs they are alive; “If they two are in heaven?” If two are in the church-yard laid, 35 Quick was the little Maid’s reply, Then ye are only five.” “O Master! we are seven.”

“Their graves are green, they may be seen,” “But they are dead; those two are dead! 65 The little Maid replied, Their spirits are in heaven!” “Twelve steps or more from my mother’s door, ’T was throwing words away; for still And they are side by side. 40 The little Maid would have her will, And said, “Nay, we are seven!” “My stockings there I often knit, [1798] My kerchief there I hem; And there upon the ground I sit, And sing a song to them.

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. What concrete details help the reader picture the answer never wavers. What effect does this “little cottage Girl”? For instance, what does the repetition have on your understanding of the speaker mean in line 11 when he says, “Her eyes poem? were fair, and very fair”? Why is the setting 3. How would you characterize the little girl’s attitude important to the tale being told? toward her dead sister and brother? What is the 2. In the first stanza, the speaker raises a question logic leading to her conclusion that “we are that is explored in subsequent stanzas through a seven”? Does William Wordsworth present the girl dialogue between him and the little girl. Note how sympathetically or critically? the speaker asks again and again how many 4. What does the girl understand about the nature of children are in the little girl’s family and how her family and the death of family members that the

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ostensibly more experienced speaker has yet to language associated with elevated literary efforts.

Home and Family learn? By the end, has she altered the speaker’s How well does “We Are Seven” achieve this goal? view? Is the regular rhyme and rhythm scheme in keeping 5. In his preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802), Wordsworth with this goal? What about the repetition? What states that he wants his poetry to be written in “the examples of figurative language do you find? real language of men,” not the more elaborate

A Prayer for My Daughter

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was born in Dublin to a middle-class Protestant family with strong connections to England. The young Yeats spent his childhood in the west of Ireland, a region that remained a profound influence on his work. Yeats began as a playwright, founding the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899, and wrote several plays celebrating Irish cultural tradition. The most important of these are Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), The King’s Threshold (1904), and Deirdre (1907). His early plays earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. By 1912, he had turned to writing poetry. Profoundly influenced by the poetry of William Blake, Yeats’s work reflects Ireland’s rich mythology and a fascination with the occult. His collections include The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), and The Winding Stair (1933). Written at the age of fifty-four, “A Prayer for My Daughter” (1919) reflects the uncertainties of an aging father raising a daughter in a tumultuous world.

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid May she be granted beauty and yet not Under this cradle-hoo d and coverlid Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught, My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle Or hers before a looking-glass, for such, But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill Being made beautiful overmuch, 20 Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind, 5 Consider beauty a sufficient end, Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed; Lose natural kindness and maybe And for an hour I have walked and prayed The heart-revealing intimacy Because of the great gloom that is in my mind. That chooses right, and never find a friend.

I have walked and prayed for this young child Helen being chosen found life flat and dull 25 an hour And later had much trouble from a fool, And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower, 10 While that great Queen, that rose out of the And under the arches of the bridge, and scream spray, In the elms above the flooded stream; Being fatherless could have her way Imagining in excited reverie Yet chose a bandy-legg èd smith for man. That the future years had come, It’s certain that fine women eat 30 Dancing to a frenzied drum, 15 A crazy salad with their meat Out of the murderous innocence of the sea. Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 280 18/08/16 12:31 PM In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned; An intellectual hatred is the worst, Yeats Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned So let her think opinions are accursed.

35 By those that are not entirely beautiful; Have I not seen the loveliest woman born A Prayer for My Daughter Yet many, that have played the fool Out of the mouth of Plenty’s horn, 60 For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise. Because of her opinionated mind And many a poor man that has roved, Barter that horn and every good Loved and thought himself beloved, By quiet natures understood From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes. 40 For an old bellows full of angry wind?

May she become a flourishing hidden tree Considering that, all hatred driven hence, 65 That all her thoughts may like the linnet be, The soul recovers radical innocence And have no business but dispensing round And learns at last that it is self-delighting, Their magnanimities of sound, Self-appeasing, self-affrighting, Nor but in merriment begin a chase, 45 And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will; Nor but in merriment a quarrel. She can, though every face should scowl 70 O may she live like some green laurel And every windy quarter howl Rooted in one dear perpetual place. Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

My mind, because the minds that I have loved, And may her bridegroom bring her to a house The sort of beauty that I have approved, 50 Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious; Prosper but little, has dried up of late, For arrogance and hatred are the wares 75 Yet knows that to be choked with hate Peddled in the thoroughfares. May well be of all evil chances chief. How but in custom and in ceremony If there’s no hatred in a mind Are innocence and beauty born? Assault and battery of the wind 55 Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn, Can never tear the linnet from the leaf. And custom for the spreading laurel tree. 80 [1919]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. What contrasts does the opening stanza establish? place” (l. 48)? What are the alternatives to being a Consider the settings inside and outside, as well hidden tree with thoughts like a linnet? as the speaker’s frame of mind. 4. What is the effect of the repeated construction 2. Why is the speaker skeptical of “Being made “May she” (ll. 17, 41, 47)? What difference would it beautiful overmuch” (l. 20)? What does he see as have made if William Butler Yeats had written “I the dangers of extraordinary beauty? How do the hope she”? allusions to Helen of Troy and Aphrodite (“that 5. In stanza 5, the speaker says, “In courtesy I’d have great Queen, that rose out of the spray,” l. 27) her chiefly learned” (l. 33). What is the meaning he support the speaker’s views on beauty? attaches to the term “courtesy”? How might his 3. What does the speaker mean when he wishes for concept of courtesy sum up the qualities he his daughter to “become a flourishing hidden tree” believes lead to a satisfying life? with thoughts “like the linnet be” (ll. 41–42)? What 6. Examine Yeats’s use of figurative language. How does this wish suggest about the future he do you interpret the image of the “Horn of Plenty” envisions for his child? How do you interpret his (l. 32), for instance, or “like some green laurel / desire that she be “Rooted in one dear perpetual Rooted in one dear perpetual place” (ll. 47–48)?

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What does the oxymoron “murderous innocence” 9. What might the setting of this poem represent?

Home and Family (l. 16) mean? What effect does the personification How does this setting affect the tone of this poem? of nature have? 10. Why is this poem entitled “A Prayer for My Daughter”? 7. What are the values the speaker wants his What elements of prayer are embodied here? daughter to embrace? Which ones does he want 11. Is the vision that Yeats favors for his daughter one her to avoid? that reflects stereotypical views of women? What 8. Based on the poem’s final two stanzas, how elements of the poem might lend themselves to would you describe the father’s vision of an ideal such an interpretation? What is your interpretation? woman? Pay careful attention to his use of the word “innocence” in these stanzas.

Mother to Son

LANGSTON HUGHES Langston Hughes (1902–1967) grew up in the African American community of Joplin, Missouri. He spent a year at Columbia University and became involved with the Harlem movement, but was shocked by the endemic racial prejudice at the university and subsequently left. Hughes traveled for several years, spending some time in Paris before returning to the United States. He completed his BA at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University in 1929, after which he returned to Harlem for the remainder of his life. Hughes’s output was prolific in verse, prose, and drama. His first volume of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926. This collection contained “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” perhaps his most famous poem. His first novel, Not Without Laughter (1930), won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature. He is remembered for his celebration of the uniqueness of African American culture, which found expression in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926), published in the Nation, and in the poem “My People.” He also wrote children’s poetry, musicals, and opera. This poem, “Mother to Son,” expresses a mother’s advice to her son with its famous refrain, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, 5 And places with no carpet on the floor — Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, 10 And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light.

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Don’t you set down on the steps 15

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. The Writer Don’t you fall now — For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. 20 [1922]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. What is the overall message the mother is trying to 5. How old is the son being addressed? Does he convey to her son? seem to be at some sort of crossroads? Cite 2. Based on details in the poem, how would you specific textual evidence to support your characterize the mother? viewpoint. 3. The poem’s speaker employs an extended 6. Is the mother in this poem lecturing, apologizing, metaphor to explain her life to her son. What do advising, pleading, showing affection, criticizing? you think the “crystal stair” symbolizes (l. 2)? Why How would you characterize the tone of the poem? do you think the poet has chosen to repeat this 7. Even though the poem is presented without stanza image in the final line? What might the details of breaks, there are “turns,” or shifts. What are they? tacks, splinters, landings, and corners represent? Try reciting or performing the poem; where would What does the inclusion of these images suggest you emphasize the pauses? How do these breaks about the mother’s relationship with her son? influence or emphasize meaning? 4. What effect do colloquial expressions and dialect have on your understanding of the speaker? What effect do they have on the meaning of the poem?

The Writer

RICHARD WILBUR Richard Wilbur (b. 1921) is an American poet and translator. He grew up in New York City and graduated from Amherst College in 1942. After serving in the army during World War II, Wilbur attended graduate school at Harvard University and went on to teach at Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, and Smith College. Wilbur has published thirteen poetry collections. Things of This World (1957) won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Wilbur won a second Pulitzer Prize for his New and Collected Poems (1989). He has also written two books of prose and translated numerous plays by the French dramatists Molière, Jean Racine, and Pierre Corneille. Wilbur’s poetry often illuminates epiphany in everyday experiences, a quality on full display in “The Writer.”

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In her room at the prow of the house Home and Family Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden, My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys 5 Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy: I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses, 10 As if to reject my thought and its easy figure. A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking, And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor Of strokes, and again is silent. 15

I remember the dazed starling Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago; How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it; And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door, 20 We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove To the hard floor, or the desk-top.

And wait then, humped and bloody. 25 For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back, Beating a smooth course for the right window And clearing the sill of the world. 30

It is always a matter, my darling, Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish What I wished you before, but harder. [1969]

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1. You probably noticed that the central image of the you think that wish was? What do you think the first three stanzas of “The Writer” is the house speaker means by “but harder”? My Father’s Song depicted as a ship at sea. What mood does the 6. What is the connection between the speaker’s image set? What diction choices develop that attitude toward writing and his attitude toward his image, and how might they be connected to the daughter? How do Richard Wilbur’s language poem’s subject? What does the image tell you choices help develop this connection? about the speaker’s family life? about the life of a writer? 7. In an interview with the Paris Review, Wilbur said that “there has to be a sudden, confident sense 2. What do you make of the word “passage” in line that there is an exploitable and interesting 9? What are some of its possible meanings? How relationship between something perceived out do the word’s multiple meanings help the speaker there and something in the way of incipient comment on the act of writing? meaning within you. . . . Noting a likeness or 3. The story of the starling in the room is at once resemblance between two things in nature can literal and metaphoric. What do you think it provide this freshness, but I think there must be represents? Explain your answer. more.” In what ways does “The Writer” take the relationship between “something out there” and 4. What do you think the speaker means by “easy something within the speaker to a level beyond figure” (l.11)? Consider several possible meanings. just resemblance? 5. At the end of the poem, the speaker says, “I wish / What I wished you before, but harder.” What do

My Father’s Song

SIMON J. ORTIZ Simon J. Ortiz (b. 1941) is the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction. A member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe, Ortiz grew up near Albuquerque, New Mexico. He attended Fort Lewis College, served three years in the military, and then attended the University of New Mexico before earning an MFA in writing from the University of Iowa in 1969. Since 1968, Ortiz has taught creative writing and Native American literature at many institutions, and he currently teaches at Arizona State University, where he is the founder and coordinator of the Indigenous Speakers Series. His most well-known works are the poetry collection From Sand Creek (1981), which won a Pushcart Prize, and Woven Stone (1992), a work that combines poetry and prose from three of his previous books. In “My Father’s Song,” Ortiz evokes both the power of familial memory and a tender reverence for nature.

Wanting to say things, I miss my father tonight. His voice, the slight catch, the depth from his thin chest, the tremble of emotion 5 in something he has just said

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to his son, his song: Home and Family We planted corn one Spring at Acu — we planted several times but this one particular time 10 I remember the soft damp sand in my hand. My father had stopped at one point to show me an overturned furrow; the plowshare had unearthed 15 the burrow nest of a mouse in the soft moist sand. Very gently, he scooped tiny pink animals into the palm of his hand and told me to touch them. 20 We took them to the edge of the field and put them in the shade of a sand moist clod. I remember the very softness of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice 25 and my father saying things. [1977]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. “My Father’s Song” has two different speakers. 4. Simon J. Ortiz is considered a master of tactile How can you tell which is which? How are the imagery. Find examples of it in “My Father’s Song.” speakers different? How are they the same? Is How are those images created and reinforced? there a point where the two meld together? 5. How does the structure of “My Father’s Song” help 2. Why do you think the speaker calls his memory of convey what the speaker misses about his father? his father a song? 6. Ortiz is a member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe. 3. Why do you think the poem opens with “Wanting “Acu” (l. 8) is another word for Acoma. What to say things, / I miss my father tonight”? What do aspects of this poem seem particularly tied to you think has made this particular night so Native American culture and traditions? What important? What are some of the specific things aspects of it are universal? the speaker misses about his father?

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My Father and the Figtree My Father and the Figtree NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952) is a Palestinian American poet, novelist, editor, and political activist. Her works for children include the picture book Sitti’s Secret (1994) and the novel Habibi (1997). Her poetry collections include Different Ways to Pray (1980), Fuel (1998), 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (2002), You and Yours (2005), Honeybee (2008), and Tender Spot: Selected Poems (2009). Nye describes herself as “a wandering poet” and has been a visiting writer all over the world. Her many awards include four Pushcart Prizes, the Jane Addams Children’s Book award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. Nye was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2009, and in 2013 she was awarded both the Robert Creeley Award and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature. In “My Father and the Fig Tree,” a poem from her collection Different Ways to Pray, the speaker chronicles changes in her father’s life through his cultural associations with a fig tree.

For other fruits my father was indifferent. He’d point at the cherry trees and say, “See those? I wish they were figs.” In the evening he sat by our beds

weaving folktales like vivid little scarves. 5 They always involved a figtree. Even when it didn’t fit, he’d stick it in. Once Joha1 was walking down the road and he saw a figtree. Or, he tied his camel to a figtree and went to sleep. 10 Or, later when they caught and arrested him, his pockets were full of figs. At age six I ate a dried fig and shrugged. “That’s not what I’m talking about!” he said,

“I’m talking about a fig straight from the earth 15 gift of Allah! — on a branch so heavy it touches the ground. I’m talking about picking the largest, fattest, sweetest fig in the world and putting it in my mouth.” (Here he’d stop and close his eyes.) 20

Years passed, we lived in many houses, none had figtrees. We had lima beans, zucchini, parsley, beets. “Plant one!” my mother said, but my father never did. 25

1 A trickster character in Middle East folktales. — EDS.

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He tended garden half-hear tedly, forgot to water, Home and Family let the okra get too big. “What a dreamer he is. Look how many things he starts and doesn’t finish.”

The last time he moved, I had a phone call, 30 My father, in Arabic, chanting a song I’d never heard. “What’s that?” He took me out back to the new yard. There, in the middle of Dallas, Texas, a tree with the largest, fattest, 35 sweetest figs in the world. “It’s a figtree song!” he said, plucking his fruits like ripe tokens, emblems, assurance of a world that was always his own. 40 [1980]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. What does the fig tree mean to the speaker’s 5. What qualities of traditional storytelling do you see father? Why is the speaker’s father “indifferent” in “My Father and the Figtree”? What does Naomi (l. 1) to other fruits? What does the fig tree mean Shihab Nye’s use of what is traditionally a prose to the speaker? How do you know? form tell us about the speaker’s father? About the 2. Describe how the poem shifts after the speaker speaker? says, “Years passed, we lived in many houses / 6. In what ways does “My Father and the Figtree” none had figtrees” (ll. 20–21). What has changed in connect the natural world to the immigrant the speaker’s attitude toward her father? experience? How does that connection help ease 3. Why does the father refuse to plant a fig tree and the difficulty of displacement for the speaker and instead “He tended garden halfheartedly, forgot to her father? water, / let the okra get too big” (ll. 26–27)? 7. Apart from two similes, Nye uses very little 4. How do you interpret the final two lines? Why are figurative language in this poem. Why do you think figs “emblems, assurance / of a world that was she decided to limit the poem in this way? What always his own”? Do you have tokens or emblems other resources of language does Nye use to give of your background that make your world your the poem its power? own? Describe them.

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MARY OLIVER Wild Geese Mary Oliver (b. 1935) was born in Maple Heights, Ohio, an affluent suburb of Cleveland. She attended Ohio State University and Vassar College, but did not complete her degree. Nonetheless, she has held several teaching positions at colleges, including Bennington College. Oliver published her first volume, No Voyage, and Other Poems, in 1963 at the age of twenty-eight, and in 1984 won the Pulitzer Prize with American Primitive (1983). Following a period of silence, she published a considerable body of prose and verse between 1990 and 2006, winning the Christopher Award and the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light (1990), and the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems (1992). These were followed by White Pine (1994), West Wind (1997), Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems (1999), Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (2003), Why I Wake Early (2004), and Thirst (2006), Red Bird (2008), and, most recently, Felicity (2015). The sense of community with nature is ever-present in her work, as in “Wild Geese,” a poem exploring the place of humankind in “the family of things.”

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. 5 Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. 10 Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — 15 over and over announcing your place in the family of things. [1986]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. Why do you think Mary Oliver chose to address 2. Even in the absence of a regular rhyme scheme or readers directly as “You” in the opening lines of her rhythm, the language of this poem seems to have poem? What effect does this have on your reading an incantatory or hypnotic quality. How does Oliver of the poem? achieve this effect?

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3. Why does Oliver compare the way the world calls suggest about the poem’s purpose? How does

Home and Family to us with the call of wild geese? What do wild that description link to the opening sentence? geese represent in this poem? Why is it important 5. How do you interpret the line “the world offers that they “are heading home again” (l. 12)? Are the itself to your imagination” (l. 14)? geese metaphorical? What might Oliver be 6. How does the nature imagery throughout this suggesting about homing instincts in both birds poem help us understand what Oliver means by and humans? “the family of things” (l. 17)? Overall, do you find 4. What does the phrase “no matter how lonely” this poem sad or hopeful? (l. 13) suggest about the speaker’s assumptions regarding her audience? What does the phrase

My Father’s Geography

AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER Afaa Michael Weaver (b. 1951) is a poet, short story writer, and editor from Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a BA in literature from Excelsior College and an MA in playwriting and theater at Brown University. Weaver has published fourteen full-length poetry collections and has been awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (1998), a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Taiwan (2002), the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (2014), and several Pushcart Prizes (2008, 2013, 2014). Weaver was also the first poet named an elder of the Cave Canem Foundation, an organization active in promoting African American poets. Weaver is currently an Alumnae Professor of English at Simmons College. In “My Father’s Geography” Weaver explores his own connection to and separation from Africa while abroad in Europe.

I was parading the Côte d’Azur, hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes, following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo to the hill that overlooks the ville.1

A woman fed me paté in the afternoon, 5 calling from her stall to offer me more. At breakfast I talked in French with an old man about what he loved about America — the Kennedys.

On the beaches I walked and watched topless women sunbathe and swim, 10 loving both home and being so far from it.

At a phone looking to Africa over the Mediterranean, I called my father, and, missing me, he said, “You almost home boy. Go on cross that sea!” [1992]

1 City. — EDS.

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1. Why do you think the poem is titled “My Father’s meanings have on your understanding of the The Hammock Geography”? father’s exhortation in the last line? 2. How would you characterize the speaker? 6. You may have noticed that “My Father’s What kind of person is he? How is he defined Geography” has fourteen lines. What other by his travels? by his relationship with his aspects of the poem might qualify it as a father? sonnet? How does that form contribute to the 4. What does the speaker mean when he says he meaning of the poem? In what ways does the loves “both home and being so far from it” (l. 12)? poem defy the formal conventions of a sonnet? How does this deviation from form affect the 5. What are some possible meanings for the phrase poem? “missing me” (l. 13)? What effect do those different

The Hammock

LI-YOUNG LEE Li-Young Lee (b. 1957) was born to an elite Chinese family. His great-grandfather had been China’s first republican president (1912–1916), and his father had been a personal physician to Mao Zedong. Despite the latter association, his family fled from China when the People’s Republic was established in 1948, settling in Jakarta, where Lee was born. An increasing anti-Chinese movement in Indonesia drove the family from the country, and after a futile search for a permanent home in turbulent Asia, they settled in the United States in 1964. Lee was educated at the University of Pittsburgh, where he began to write. He later attended the University of Arizona and the State University of New York at Brockport. Lee’s first collection of poetry was Rose (1986), which won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award from New York University. This was followed by The City in Which I Love You (1990), which won the Lamont Poetry Prize; Book of My Nights (2001); and his most recent publication, Behind My Eyes (2008). He has also published a personal memoir, The Wingéd Seed: A Remembrance (1995). Like much of Lee’s poetry, “The Hammock,” first published in the Kenyon Review, explores the interplay of the eternal and the everyday.

When I lay my head in my mother’s lap I think how day hides the stars, the way I lay hidden once, waiting inside my mother’s singing to herself. And I remember how she carried me on her back 5 between home and the kindergarten, once each morning and once each afternoon.

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I don’t know what my mother’s thinking. Home and Family When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder: Do his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries 10 from becoming his? I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: They have so far to arrive. Amen, I think, and I feel almost comforted.

I’ve no idea what my child is thinking. 15 Between two unknowns, I live my life. Between my mother’s hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child’s wishes, older than I am by outliving me. And what’s it like? Is it a door, and good-bye on either side? 20 A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests. [2000]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. What are the connotations of the word hammock? 5. What evidence is there in the poem — both words How do these connotations contribute to your and images — of the speaker’s tentativeness? For understanding of the poem? example, he feels “almost comforted” in line 14. 2. Find the visual and tactile images in the poem. He asks two questions at the very end and replies, What do these images suggest about the “Yes” (l. 22) — but to which question is he relationships described? Pay careful attention to responding? What is the source of this the descriptions of physical positions. uncertainty? Does the speaker ultimately get beyond it, embrace it, or resign himself to it? 3. Why do you think the poet chose to italicize the words “Dear God” (l. 11) and “Amen” (l. 13)? What 6. How did you interpret the poem’s final stanza? does this tell you about the speaker’s attitude What are the “two unknowns” (l. 16)? What are the toward his subject? How does this point the way “two great rests” (l. 22)? What do these images to the poem’s tone? suggest about how the speaker lives his life? 4. Why do the stars “have so far to arrive” (l. 13)? 7. Examine the structure of this poem by comparing Those stars are in the same stanza as the father’s stanzas one and three to stanzas two and four. “kisses” (l. 10) and “worries” (l. 10). How might the How does the shape of the poem reflect its title three be related? and theme?

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SUZANNE RANCOURT

Suzanne Rancourt (b. 1959) is a Native American poet, educator, and elder of the Abenaki Whose Mouth Do I Speak With Bear Clan. She grew up in west central Maine and has served in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army. Rancourt earned an MFA in poetry from Vermont College and an MA in Educational Psychology from the University at Albany, SUNY. Her first book of poems, Billboard in the Clouds (2001), won the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award. Her work has also been featured in several anthologies, including The Journal of Military Experience, Vol. 2 (2012) and In the Trenches: The Psychological Impact of War (2015). Rancourt is also the managing editor for Blue Streak: A Journal of Military Poetry. In “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With,” Rancourt’s speaker reflects on her Native American heritage, bringing to life a childhood memory of her father.

I can remember my father bringing home spruce gum. He worked in the woods and filled his pockets with golden chunks of pitch. For his children he provided this special sacrament 5 and we’d gather at this feet, around his legs, bumping his lunchbox, and his empty thermos rattled inside. Our skin would stick to Daddy’s gluey clothing and we’d smell like Mumma’s Pine Sol. We had no money for store bought gum 10 but that’s all right. The spruce gum was so close to chewing amber as though in our mouths we held the eyes of Coyote and how many other children had fathers 15 that placed on their innocent, anxious tongue the blood of tree? [2004]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. Spruce gum is the sap of the spruce tree that has What do you think spruce gum represents for the hardened into resin; it is sometimes chewed like speaker? gum. When it hardens further, it becomes amber. 2. Why does the speaker refer to her father bringing According to one blogger from Maine, “You can’t home spruce gum as a “sacrament” (l. 5)? How is forget how the gum first crumbles, releasing a the idea of a sacrament developed throughout the powerful taste of the spruce forest, then comes poem? back together and settles down (after you spit out 3. Consider the poem’s imagery. What senses do the the impurities) into a nice, long lasting, lavender images appeal to? How does the imagery convey colored chew.” How does this description of the speaker’s attitude toward her father? her spruce gum inform your reading of the poem?

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childhood? What does the imagery imply about the connect some of the images in “Whose Mouth Do I

Home and Family larger meanings these memories have for her as an Speak With”? adult? 5. How does the poem answer the question of the 4. In Native American tradition, Coyote (l. 14) is often poem’s title? In what ways is the answer left open a trickster, usually imagined and portrayed with to interpretation? Whose mouth does the speaker yellow — or amber — eyes. How does Coyote speak with?

My Husband

REBECCA HAZELTON Rebecca Hazelton (b. 1978) is an award-winning poet, editor, and critic. After attending Davidson College, Hazelton went on to earn an MFA from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD from Florida State University. Hazelton was a 2010–2011 Jay C. and Ruth Hall Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Creative Writing Institute, and her third full-length book of poetry, Vow (2012), won the Cleveland State Poetry Center Open Competition Prize. She is the author of two other full-length books of poetry, Fair Copy (2012) and Bad Star (2013). She has taught at Beloit College and Oklahoma State University. In “My Husband,” Hazelton’s speaker paints a vivid, idealized portrait of her husband.

My husband in the house. My husband on the lawn, pushing the mower, 4th of July, the way my husband’s sweat wends like Crown Royale to the waistband 5 of his shorts, the slow motion shake of the head the water running down his chest, all of this lit like a Poison1 video: 2 Cherry Pie his cutoffs his blond hair his air guitar crescendo. 10 My husband at the PTA meeting. My husband warming milk at 3 a.m. while I sleep. My husband washing the white Corvette the bare chest and the soap, 15 the objectification of my husband by the pram pushers and mailman. My husband at Home Depot asking

1 An American rock band that was particularly popular from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. — EDS. 2 A popular song by the rock band Warrant, recorded in 1990. The music video includes a blonde woman in cutoffs playing the air guitar. It was banned from a Canadian TV network for being “offensively sexist.” — EDS.

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 294 18/08/16 12:31 PM Hazelton where the bolts are, 20 the nuts, the screws, my god, it’s filthy my husband reading from the news, My Husband my husband cooking French toast, Belgian waffles, my husband for all 25 nationalities. My husband with a scotch, my husband with his shoes off, his slippers on, my husband’s golden leg hairs in the glow of a reading lamp. 30 My husband bearded, my husband shaved, the way my husband taps out the razor, the small hairs in the sink, my husband with tweezers to my foot, 35 to the splinter I carried for years, my husband chiding me for waiting to remove what pained me, 40 my husband brandishing aloft the sliver to the light, and laughing. [2015]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. The poem opens with a long, detailed description 3. Look carefully at the structure of “My Husband.” of the speaker’s husband mowing the lawn, “all of What do you notice about the position of the lines this lit like a Poison video” (l. 9). What aspects of and the lengths of the lines? What effect do those “My Husband” are like a music video? Consider choices have on the poem’s mood? film techniques such as framing, close-ups, and 4. How would you describe the tone of “My lighting. How do those details help Rebecca Husband”? Consider Hazelton’s use of repetition, Hazelton paint a picture of her feelings about her varying line lengths, imagery, and hyperbole. husband? 5. Discuss whether you think “My Husband” 2. What might the “sliver” in the poem’s last line objectifies the speaker’s husband, supporting your represent? Why do you think the husband is position with evidence from the poem itself. laughing?

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Home and Family PAIRED POEMS

My Papa’s Waltz

THEODORE ROETHKE Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His early years spent in the family greenhouse business brought him close to nature and to his father, who died suddenly when Roethke was fifteen, a loss that looms large in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz.” After graduating from the University of Michigan, he did brief stints at law school and at Harvard University before the Great Depression compelled him to find work teaching at Lafayette College. He continued to teach throughout his life. Roethke first became popular after favorable reviews for Open House in 1941. He then won numerous prizes for his work throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including National Book Awards for both Words for the Wind (1957) and The Far Field (1964). The meeting of the mystical and the natural is at the center of his work — a meeting that fascinated such earlier poets as William Blake and William Wordsworth, both of whom were strong influences on Roethke’s poetry. “My Papa’s Waltz” is his most famous, and oft-interpreted, poem.

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans 5 Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; 10 At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed 15 Still clinging to your shirt. [1948]

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1. How would you characterize the relationship 4. Manuscripts show that Theodore Roethke started between the father and the son in this poem? writing this poem as a portrait of a daughter and Those Winter Sundays 2. Consider the two figures of speech in the poem: her father. Explain why you think having a girl at the simile of “hung on like death” (l. 3) and the the center of this poem would or would not affect metaphor of “waltzing” throughout the poem. What your response to it. do they add to the story line of the poem? Imagine, 5. What is the effect of the regular rhyme and rhythm for instance, if the title were changed to “My Papa” scheme of the poem? In what ways does it mimic or “Dancing with My Father.” a waltz? 3. How do you interpret the lines “My mother’s 6. Some interpret this poem to be about an countenance / Could not unfrown itself” (ll. 7–8)? abusive father-son relationship, while others Is she angry? jealous? worried? frightened? read it quite differently. How do you interpret it? disapproving? Why doesn’t she take action or Use textual evidence from the poem to explain step in? your reading.

Those Winter Sundays

ROBERT HAYDEN Born Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Michigan, Robert Hayden (1913–1980) was raised both in a dysfunctional family and in an equally dysfunctional foster home just next door. The turmoil of his childhood was complicated by his extreme nearsightedness, which excluded him from most activities other than reading. Hayden attended Detroit City College (now Wayne State University) before studying under W. H. Auden in the graduate English program at the University of Michigan. In 1976, he was appointed consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress, a post that was the forerunner to that of U.S. poet laureate. His first volume, Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940), took its voice from the Harlem Renaissance and impressed W. H. Auden with its originality. Later work continued to garner critical praise, including his epic poem on the Amistad mutiny, “Middle Passage,” and A Ballad of Remembrance (1962), which includes his most famous poem, “Those Winter Sundays.”

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,

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Speaking indifferently to him, 10 Home and Family who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices? [1962]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. What are the different time frames of this poem, 5. Notice the poem’s shift between father and son, and when does the poem shift from flashback to from “him” to “I.” How does this alternation present day? How does Robert Hayden keep this contribute to your understanding of the poem? shift from seeming abrupt? 6. What contrasts do you see in the poem? Identify at 2. What does the line “fearing the chronic angers of least three, and discuss how they work individually that house” (l. 9) suggest about the son’s and collectively. relationship with his father and the kind of home he 7. What is the son’s feeling about his father? Could grew up in? this poem be read as a son’s belated thank you? 3. What is the meaning of “love’s austere and lonely Explain your answer. What does the adult speaker offices” (l. 14)? What effect does Hayden achieve in the poem understand about his father that he by choosing such an uncommon, somewhat did not as a child? What is the effect of the archaic term as “offices”? repetition in the last two lines? 4. What is the tone of this poem? How do the specific 8. In poetry, the lyric is usually a short poem details of the setting the speaker describes expressing personal feelings and may take the contribute to that tone? Consider also how the form of a song set to music. What music would literal descriptions act as metaphors. What, for you choose to convey the tone and themes of instance, is “blueblack cold” (l. 2)? “Those Winter Sundays”?

FOCUS ON COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

1. “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays” each poem? How does that decision affect the are both poems in which the speakers remember character of the speaker? their fathers. What are the similarities in their 3. How would you characterize the mood in each of descriptions of their fathers? What are the these poems? How do they differ from each other? differences? What are the similarities? 2. One poem rhymes; the other doesn’t. How does the choice to rhyme or not affect the meaning of

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

In “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays,” each speaker contemplates his fraught relationship with his father, sharing memories of their interactions. Read both poems carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the techniques each poet uses to depict the speaker’s attitude toward his father.

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Turtle Soup Turtle Soup MARILYN CHIN Marilyn Chin (b. 1955) is a prominent Chinese American poet, writer, and translator who grew up in Portland, Oregon, after her family emigrated from Hong Kong. She earned a BA from the University of Massachusetts and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Chin has won numerous awards for her poetry, including the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Stegner Fellowship, five Pushcart Prizes, and a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Taiwan. Chin is the author of four books of poetry: Dwarf Bamboo (1987), The Phoenix Gone, the Terrace Empty (1994), Rhapsody in Plain Yellow (2002), and Hard Love Province (2014). She has also published one book of interlinked stories, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen (2009), and has translated works by early modern Chinese poet Ai Qing and the early modern Japanese poet Go¯zo¯ Yoshimasu. Chin’s own work explores Asian American feminism and bicultural identity. In “Turtle Soup,” Chin presents a dinner scene that captures a moment of conflict between two cultures and two generations.

You go home one evening tired from work, and your mother boils you turtle soup. Twelve hours hunched over the hearth (who knows what else is in that cauldron).

You say, “Ma, you’ve poached the symbol of long life; 5 that turtle lived four thousand years, swam the Wei, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.1 Witnessed the Bronze Age,2 the High Tang3 grazed on splendid sericulture.”4 (So, she boils the life out of him.) 10

“All our ancestors have been fools. Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles to kill a famous Manchu5 and ended up with his head on a pole? Eat, child, its liver will make you strong.” 15

“Sometimes you’re the life, sometimes the sacrifice.” Her sobbing is inconsolable. So, you spread that gentle napkin over your lap in decorous Pasadena.

1 Rivers that are a part of the Grand Canal in China. — EDS. 2 3000 BC – 1000 BC. — EDS. 3 Period of time during the Tang Dynasty when Chinese poetry flourished. — EDS. 4 Raising silkworms in order to produce silk. — EDS. 5 A Chinese ethnic minority. — EDS. 299

Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong. 20 Home and Family The golden decal on the green underbelly says “Made in Hong Kong.”

Is there nothing left but the shell and humanity’s strange inscriptions, the songs, the rites, the oracles? 25

for Ben Huang [1993]

EXPLORING THE TEXT

1. Who is the speaker of “Turtle Soup”? Who is the 5. What do you make of the “Made in Hong Kong” audience — the “you” the poem addresses? How decal in line 22? What does it suggest about the does Marilyn Chin’s use of the pronoun “you” speaker’s opinion of authenticity? What might her complicate the character of the speaker? mother think of it? 2. Consider Chin’s diction choices. What effect do 6. What do you think “‘Sometimes you’re the life, words and phrases such as “cauldron,” “symbol,” sometimes the sacrifice’” (l. 16) means? Why does “sacrifice,” “high priestess,” “inscriptions,” “rites,” that statement cause the speaker to “spread that and “oracles” have on the mood of the poem? gentle napkin / over [her] lap in decorous 3. What do the references to Chinese history, art, Pasadena” (ll. 18–19)? culture, and geography in the second stanza tell us 7. What role does food — the turtle soup — and the about the speaker? What does her mother’s idea of nourishment play in the poem? How does response — “All our ancestors have been the poet move from the scene of her mother fools” — suggest about the relationship between cooking a meal to commenting on “humanity’s the speaker and her mother? about the mother’s strange inscriptions / the songs, the rites, the attitude toward the history and traditions the oracles?” (ll. 24–25)? speaker cites? 4. What is the effect of the parentheses in the last lines of the first and second stanzas? Why do you think the poet chose to use them?

Peaches

ADRIENNE SU Adrienne Su (b. 1967) is an American poet from Atlanta, Georgia. She earned a BA from Harvard University and an MFA from the University of Virginia. Su’s first book, Middle Kingdom (1997), was translated into Chinese and published in China in 2006. She is the author of two other poetry collections: Sanctuary (2006) and Having None of It (2009). Su’s writing has earned many awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and residences at the Fine Arts Works Center and The Frost Place. Her poems have been anthologized in The New American Poets (2000), The Pushcart Prize XXIV (2000), and Asian- American Poetry: The Next Generation (2004). She currently teaches at Dickinson College. In “Peaches,” Su reflects on her heritage as a child of Chinese immigrants growing up in the American South. 300

has to be maintained, or eaten in days. Peaches Obvious, but in my family, they went so fast, I never saw the mess that punishes delay.

I thought everyone bought fruit by the crate, 5 stored it in the coolest part of the house, then devoured it before any could rot. I’m from the Peach State, and to those

who ask But where are you from originally, I’d like to reply The homeland of the peach, 10 but I’m too nice, and they might not look it up. In truth, the reason we bought so much

did have to do with being Chinese — at least Chinese in that part of America, both strangers and natives on a lonely, beautiful street 15 where food came in stackable containers

and fussy bags, unless you bothered to drive to the source, where the same money landed a bushel of fruit, a tw enty-pound sack of rice. You had to drive anyway, each house surrounded 20

by land enough to grow your own, if lawns hadn’t been required. At home I loved to stare into the extra freezer, reviewing mountains of foil-wra pped meats, cakes, juice concentrate,

mysterious packets brought by house guests 25 from New York Chinatown, to be transformed by heat, force, and my mother’s patient effort, enough to keep us fed through flood or storm,

provided the power stayed on, or fire and ice could be procured, which would be labor-intensive, 30 but so was everything else my parents did. Their lives were labor, they kept this from the kids,

who grew up to confuse work with pleasure, to become typical immigrants’ children, taller than their parents and unaware of hunger 35 except when asked the odd, perplexing question. [2015]

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EXPLORING THE TEXT Home and Family 1. What do you think the speaker means when she make with the life of her parents as immigrants says that the peaches “went so fast / I never saw from China? the mess that punishes the delay” (ll. 3–4)? How 6. In an essay about food in poetry, Su writes: does that line comment on more than just a crate Food has been a topic of poetry for many of peaches? centuries and in many cultures; the notion that 2. The speaker says she comes from the Peach food writing and poetry writing are totally State, which is Georgia. Why is she asked where separate ventures is a recent development. she originally comes from? How does the family’s Much of our knowledge of eating habits, way of buying peaches by the crate complicate her culinary practices, and food taboos throughout answer to that question? history and around the world comes from 3. Consider the poem’s syntax. What effect does poetry. Food in poetry also functions as a Adrienne Su’s use of enjambment have on the powerful symbol of spiritual and moral poem’s tone? Why might she have placed stanza states. . . . breaks mid-sentence? How does the food in “Peaches” provide 4. What do you think the “odd, perplexing question” information about eating habits, culinary practices, in the poem’s last line is? and food taboos? Does it function as a “symbol of 5. How does this poem comment on contemporary spritual or moral states”? Explain your answer. American life? What contrasts does the speaker

FOCUS ON COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

1. Compare the tone of “Turtle Soup” to that of primarily on the speaker’s memories of growing up “Peaches.” Are there any similarities? in Georgia. However, both poems illuminate a gap 2. Both poems address themes of family, cultural between the speaker’s generation and that of her tradition, and Chinese American experience parents. Compare and contrast the speaker in through food. What are the similarities in how the each poem. How are their attitudes toward their poets choose to address those themes? What are parents’ generation similar? How are they the differences? different? 3. While the narrative of “Turtle Soup” centers on a mother-daughter relationship, “Peaches” focuses

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

“Turtle Soup” and “Peaches” both examine intergenerational family relationships through the lens of food. Compare and contrast the two poems, analyzing the techniques each poet uses to convey the nature of the speaker’s relationship with her family.

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UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 302 18/08/16 12:31 PM CLOSE READING redistribution 303 for 18/08/16 12:31 PM Not - change change products. its with ories of the ories of the European ories of the European use for won vict won vict d- d- Strictly har har of America. War had been had War of America. strength decade decade and controversial g, dangerous, and won with new energies that used and won with that new energies trial ies, and the hot winds of change that would that and the hot winds of change ies, PROOFS 1957, the Publishers. er Connotation may work individually or cumula- Connotation may work fought as its fuel. Life rich, and patriotism was loyalty Braves Milwaukee . The full, and improving and the growing Series, won the World , an unstable the sixties would make that make the sixties a turbulent, racing, dangerous, dangerous, racing, a turbulent, the sixties make begun not yet had decade and provocative full. blow to By 1957, the the up built had immigrants European indus excitin begun happen to not yet . had By solidified the industrial had might immigrants and won been confronted had War of America. and patrio used loyalty with that new energies full, and flourish- tism as its fuel. Life rich, was won the World Braves Milwaukee The ing. S PAGE Notice how a few word substitutions can change Notice how a few word the mood of the paragraph: the less expressive “ambition” does not; and “ambition” does not; the less expressive and evokes an exciting certainly “devoured” neutral the more quality that almost aggressive “absorbed” does not. the the following paragraph from Notice in tively. opening of Fences how the “Play” section of the together suggest words connotations of several upheaval and progress: School

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Paying attention to connotation often leads to Paying attention to connotation often leads Near the turn of the century, turn the Near of the destitute arrived in the city with and ambition Europe city absorbed The and solidan honest dream. the play them. destitute of Europe sprang of Europe destitute tenacious claws and an honest and solid and an honest claws tenacious them. city devoured The dream. (and verb choices. Consider the following sentences verb choices. Consider the following sentences “Play” opening of the from “Sprang” suggests a feeling that “arrived” does not; “tenacious claws” carries a visual image that If Wilson had used words that were less that were If Wilson had used words vivid. evocative, the sentence would be far less For instance: responses. What is the difference, for instance, for instance, What is the difference, responses. between can be woman? between pail and bucket? You writers think about these differences that sure and make deliberate choices. or a better understanding of the an interpretation, mood of a texts CONNOTATION This head- Blooms in Outer Suburbs.” “Diversity the captures Post the Washington line from The article uses the words power of connotation. yet throughout, and “increases” “grows” than connotes more “Blooms” in the headline Just a flowering. positive growth, it’s growth: as journalists use the power of connotative writers of literary readers, meaning to draw in influence their r language choices that 2017 © 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 303 Copyright 5

The following exercises will help you examine how precisely chosen words can convey Home and Family meaning.

EXERCISE 1 Discuss the differences in connotations in the following groups of words:

a. skinny, slender, svelte, gaunt, slim, lithe

b. dog, pooch, canine, pup

c. run, bolt, race, sprint, dash

d. alleged, reported, maintained, contended, claimed

e. rich, affluent, prosperous, wealthy

f. kids, descendants, children, progeny, offspring

EXERCISE 2 A. What do the connotations of the underlined words and phrases suggest about the home life that the speaker describes in Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”?

Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?

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B. What connotations contribute to the ambivalence the narrator of Alice Munro’s “The

Progress of Love” feels about her Aunt Beryl? Connotation

A scarecrow in white slacks (this is what my father called her afterward), with a white sun hat tied under her chin by a flaunting red ribbon. Her fingernails and to enails — she wore sandals — wer e painted to match the ribbon. She wore the small, dark sunglasses people wore at that time. (Not the people I knew — they didn’t own sunglasses.) She had a big red mouth, a loud laugh, hair of an unnatural color and a high gloss, like cherry wood. She was so noisy and shiny, so glamorously got up, that it was hard to tell whether she was good looking, or happy, or anything.

EXERCISE 3 Examine the following words from Marilyn Chin’s poem “Turtle Soup.” What connotations do these words suggest to you? Write each word on a piece of paper and cluster any associations that come to you, using the model cluster below as a template.

• boiled • poached • cauldron • underbelly • rites

fate

clairvoyance omens

oracles

doom the future

truth-telling

MODEL CLUSTER

How do the connotations of these words contribute to the poem’s tone? What inferences can you draw regarding the meaning of the poem based on Chin’s choice of words? Turn to a partner and share your findings.

CLOSE READING 305

UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS Copyright © 2017 (and distributed by) Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution 06_JAG_8251_ch05_148_307.indd 305 18/08/16 12:31 PM 5 EXERCISE 4 Home and Family Reread Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese.” How do the connotations of words in that poem contribute to its meaning? For instance, the word animal can often have negative connotations, but how is it used in line 4? Find other words with denotations and connotations that are important to the meaning of “Wild Geese.”

EXERCISE 5 Write two short paragraphs. In the first, describe something about your family or home that you like or appreciate. In the second, describe something about your family or home that you find annoying. In both paragraphs, choose words with connotations that convey your attitude toward your subjects.

306

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